GOP targets Biden executive order on voter registration before fall election – San Diego Union-Tribune

By CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY (Associated Press)

ATLANTA (AP) — Republicans and conservative activists are increasingly targeting an executive order issued three years ago by the Biden administration that aims to boost voter registration, saying it is unconstitutional and an attempt to interference in the November elections.

A recent fundraising email sent by a Republican Party political action committee is an example of how they phrase the order, saying it requires federal agencies “to act as Biden’s personal machine to ” get out the vote’. The committee recently subpoenaed agency heads, and a group of Republican secretaries of state asked the Supreme Court to take up a case challenging the order.

Despite the reluctance of the right, there is no indication that the order favors voters of one party over another.

White House spokeswoman Robyn Patterson said the administration will continue to protect the right to vote of eligible citizens, regardless of their political affiliation. Biden issued the order in 2021 as Republican legislatures across the country debated a wave of state voting restrictions amid false claims that widespread fraud cost former President Donald Trump’s re-election .

“These are baseless claims made by the very people who spread debunked lies about the 2020 election and who used those same debunked lies to advance laws across the country that make it harder to vote and undermine more easily the will of the people,” Patterson said. in a report.

Here’s a look at what the order does, what federal agencies have done so far to comply with it, and what Republicans are saying about it.

Biden issued the executive order on March 7, 2021, emphasizing the federal government’s “duty to ensure that voter registration and voting are made simple and easy for all eligible persons to do so” and that it would be implemented “in accordance with applicable law.” Agency leaders were asked to submit a strategic plan within 200 days.

The order ordered updates to the federal vote.gov website, including ensuring that voting information is available in more than a dozen languages. The site does not directly handle voter registration, but rather connects visitors with state and local election offices to begin the registration process.

The order specifically mentions the Department of Defense and directs it to establish procedures to annually provide active-duty military personnel with the opportunity to register, update their voter registration information, or request a postal vote.

It also directs the Justice Department to provide educational materials on registration and voting to people in federal custody as they prepare to be released, as well as information about rules that could prohibit them from voting .

A year after the order was issued, congressional Republicans sent a letter to the White House expressing concerns that the administration had overstepped its authority and was directing federal agencies to engage in activities ranging from beyond their mission.

Republicans said the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service informed state agencies that costs related to providing voter registration services were allowable administrative expenses under the under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and could be “reimbursed up to 50%”.

“Using the multibillion-dollar National Nutrition Program to implement the Biden administration’s voter registration system is not only cause for concern, but one that requires further review,” the Republicans wrote.

What the letter doesn’t say, according to a former White House official who helped implement the order, is that states administer the food assistance program and that states have been specifically directed to provide information about voter registration under a federal law passed years ago.

Justin Levitt, who served as a senior policy adviser at the White House, also said the agency was only reiterating previous indications that these expenses were reimbursable.

A few months later, Republicans sent letters to federal agencies requesting information about their plans to comply with the order. They also included the repeal of the decree in a sweeping electoral bill they introduced last year.

Last month, the chairman of the House Administration Committee sent letters requesting documents related to the order and set a two-week deadline for compliance. The chairman, Wisconsin Republican Rep. Bryan Steil, then issued subpoenas. He called the federal order “another attempt by the Biden administration to tip the scales before 2024.”

A White House official said the Office of Management and Budget sent an initial response and other agencies were working to respond to the committee when it issued the subpoenas.

Although federal agencies have not released their proposals, they have announced the steps they have taken to comply with the order.

Levitt, a lawyer and constitutional law expert, called the order revolutionary but limited in scope. Although federal law allows agencies to assist with voter registration, he said military recruiting offices were the only ones doing so before Biden issued the executive order. He also said a federal agency can only do this if a state requests it.

“Most of what agencies have done is directly in response to what states have asked them to do or to clarify the rules to make sure people know those rules,” Levitt said.

Kansas and New Mexico designated two Native American colleges operated by the U.S. Department of the Interior as voter registration agencies. Kentucky and Michigan announced they would designate Veterans Administration offices in their states. Michigan also plans to add federal Small Business Administration offices.

A group of Republicans, who are their states’ top election officials, also criticized the order, calling it a federal overreach in state administration of elections.

West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner sent a letter in May 2022 asking Biden to rescind it and opposed it when testifying before Congress last year. A few months ago, he released a statement saying his state would refuse to accept any voter registration forms collected by federal agencies.

“Adding federal agencies to an already complex administrative process will make it even more difficult for election officials to ensure accurate and timely registration services before the election,” he said in a statement in april.

In May, Warner joined eight other Republican secretaries of state in filing a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court asking the justices to challenge the order. The others were from Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, Tennessee and Wyoming.

The court rejected a request to take up and decide the case by the end of June, and will not consider it for the first time until the justices’ first private conference in early fall. In the unlikely event that the court agrees to hear the case, the proceedings would not take place until early next year.

Republicans who oppose the executive order have called it “Bidenbucks,” an apparent reference to the controversy that erupted after the 2020 election when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg provided more than $350 million to a non-profit organization which were then distributed to election offices. Republicans claimed the “Zuckerbucks” effort was an attempt to benefit Democrats.

David Becker, a former Justice Department attorney who directs the Center for Election Innovation & Research, said the timing of the intensifying criticism — years after Biden issued the executive order and just months before the presidential election – is remarkable.

“This is being portrayed as a deep state takeover, when in reality it is an effort to ensure that eligible citizens who engage with the federal government can easily register or put update their registration,” Becker said. “That’s as harmless as an order can be.”

He said an important benefit of the federal order is that already registered voters have the opportunity to update their information. This ensures more accurate voter rolls, which Republicans say is necessary.

“It’s good for election integrity. It’s good for participation,” Becker said. “Before, this wasn’t controversial.”

___

Associated Press writer Mark Sherman in Washington contributed to this report.