An election board counts absentee ballots at the Hinds County Courthouse in Jackson, Mississippi, on Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Michael Goldberg)
- The 2021 order directs federal agencies to develop voter registration plans. A group of states, including Mississippi, say the order violates their sovereign interest in regulating elections.
Mississippi state officials are challenging an executive order signed by President Joe Biden (D) in 2021, claiming the order illegally mandated a government-wide voter registration initiative led by the White House.
Executive Order (EO) 14019, promoting voting access, directs federal agencies to develop state-level voter registration plans without first consulting the states. The actions ordered by Biden include:
- Distributing voter registration and absentee ballot application forms and providing access to state online systems to eligible individuals.
- Assist applicants in completing voter registration and absentee ballot application forms in a manner consistent with all relevant state laws.
- Recruiting and assisting approved, nonpartisan third-party organizations and state officials to provide voter registration services on agency premises.
Biden’s order also directs the U.S. Attorney General to establish procedures to provide educational materials related to voter registration and voting and to facilitate voter registration for all eligible individuals in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson, Mississippi’s top election official, said in a statement earlier this year that he had sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting information on the extent of Mississippi’s implementation of the order, raising concerns about the lack of authority and the threat to the integrity of Mississippi’s elections.
In addition, Watson said he had filed a Freedom of Information Request (FOIA) with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding any communications between his officers and any prison or detention facility in Mississippi.
The federal agency responded that Watson’s FOIA request was too broad.
What Mississippi authorities say
Governor Tate Reeves, Attorney General Lynn Fitch and Secretary of State Watson – all Republicans who make up the State Election Board – have joined a complaint on behalf of the state of Mississippi filed by the states of Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and South Carolina.
In its lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas, the group claims: “President Biden has attempted to transform the federal bureaucracy into a voter registration organization and turn every interaction between a federal bureaucrat and a member of the public into a voter registration scam.”
“This exceeds any authority that executive agencies have under federal law, violates the Constitution, jeopardizes states’ attempts to regulate voter registration, and ultimately undermines the voter registration systems that states have established,” the states claim. “As a result, EO 14019 impacts not only federal elections, but state elections as well. Under its terms, EO 14019 would transform the federal bureaucracy into a voter registration agency that registers voters for state and local elections as well as federal elections.”
In a statement released Tuesday, Secretary Watson said that from the day “this unlawful Executive Order (EO 14019) was signed, my team and I had hoped that it would be just another Biden administration word salad with no action.”
“Unfortunately, that was not the case. In 2022, several Secretaries of State and I sent a letter to the administration urging them to resign. Our office has since been closely examining the implementation of the EO and filing FOIA requests to ensure we have enough facts to file suit and stop this absurd EO,” Watson said. “Fortunately, that day has come! We look forward to continuing to push hard to stop the use of taxpayer money for illegal purposes.”
Governor Reeves said the order was a prime example of why the Biden-Harris administration has been “such a disaster.”
“They’re focused on anything but their job, and Americans are paying the price. Federal agencies should be focused on their core missions, not acting as an extension of the Democratic National Committee,” Reeves said. “This really shows how far the Biden-Harris administration will go to expand its power, and that’s why Mississippi will continue to fight back when they break the law.”
For her part, Attorney General Fitch said she fully supports encouraging voter registration and fostering an engaged electorate. However, Fitch said, “Putting the full weight of the Oval Office behind an initiative first developed by partisan activist groups and then hiding the agency’s activities from public scrutiny is going too far.”
“The law does not allow this. Mississippi will not tolerate this. The people deserve answers and we are demanding accountability through this lawsuit,” Fitch added.
States claim Biden’s order is unconstitutional
The states are asking the U.S. District Court to find that Biden’s order and the actions of federal agencies to implement it are illegal and unconstitutional, pointing out that the states have unlimited authority to regulate state elections.
“The Tenth Amendment guarantees the states the power to regulate state elections and voter qualifications, including voter registration for state elections. There is no doubt that this is a sovereign interest,” the states assert, adding, “When it comes to federal elections, the Constitution vests in the states the power to establish voter qualifications and to regulate the time, place, and manner of elections, subject to any contrary order of Congress. These are inherently sovereign acts.”
The states argue that the order effectively undermines the regulatory structures they created and violates their sovereign interest in regulating elections at their own discretion.
“In sum, the existence of state-authorized and operated voter registration operations interferes with the plaintiff states’ ability to regulate their own election processes and determine voter qualifications,” the states argue. “Underlying EO 14019 is the proposition that the federal government, with its immense resources, can operate a voter registration operation and then be held accountable for the activities of its employees in that operation before a forum of its choosing – assuming that it is held accountable for its activities at all. In doing so, the federal government essentially becomes an unregulated – or, at best, a less regulated – actor in the state election process.”
