ATLANTA – Republican and conservative activists have increasingly targeted an executive order issued three years ago by the Biden administration that aims to increase voter registration, claiming it is unconstitutional and an attempt to interfere in the November elections.
A recent fundraising email sent by a Republican Party political action committee is an example of how they are framing the order, saying it forces federal agencies “to act as the personal ‘Get-Out- Biden’s The-Vote’.” The committee recently issued subpoenas to agency directors, and a group of GOP secretaries of state asked the Supreme Court to launch a case challenging the order.
Despite resistance from the right, there was no indication that the order favors voters from one party over another.
White House spokeswoman Robyn Patterson said the administration will continue to protect voting rights of eligible citizens, regardless of political affiliation. Biden issued the order in 2021 as Republican legislatures across the country debated a wave of state voting restrictions amid the False allegations that widespread fraud cost Former president donald trump re-election.
“These are baseless allegations advanced by the same people who spread debunked lies about the 2020 election and used those same debunked lies to promote laws across the country that make it harder to vote and easier to undermine the will of the people,” Patterson said. in a statement.
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, noting the federal government’s “duty to ensure that registering to vote and voting is simple and easy for all those eligible to do so” and that it would be implemented “in manner consistent with applicable law.” Agency leaders were asked to submit a strategic plan within 200 days.
The order directed updates to the federal vote.gov website, including ensuring that voting information is available in more than a dozen languages. The site is not directly dedicated to voter registration, but rather connects visitors to state and local election offices to begin the registration process.
The order specifically mentions the Department of Defense and asks it to establish procedures to provide active-duty military personnel the opportunity each year to register, update their voter registration information or request an absentee ballot.
It also directs the Department of Justice to provide educational materials about registration and voting to people in federal custody as they prepare for release, along with information about rules that may prohibit them from voting.
A year after issuing the order, congressional Republicans sent a letter to the White House raising concerns that the administration had exceeded its authority and was ordering federal agencies to engage in activities beyond their mission.
Republicans said the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service informed state agencies that the costs of providing voter registration services were allowable administrative expenses under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and could be “reimbursed to the 50 percent level.”
“Using the nation’s multibillion-dollar nutrition program to implement the Biden administration’s voter registration scheme is not only a cause for concern, it also requires further scrutiny,” the Republicans wrote.
What the letter didn’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 were specifically directed to provide voter registration information under a federal law approved years ago.
Justin Levitt, who served as a senior policy adviser at the White House, also said the agency was merely reiterating previous guidance 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 executive order in a sweeping election bill they introduced last year.
Last month, the president of the Chamber 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 “yet 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 that other agencies were working to respond to the committee when it issued the subpoenas.
Although federal agencies have not published their proposals, they have announced the steps they have taken to comply with the order.
Levitt, an attorney and constitutional law expert, described the order as innovative but limited in scope. While federal law allows agencies to help 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 the agencies did was directly what states asked them to do or clarified the rules to make sure people knew what the rules were,” Levitt said.
Kansas and New Mexico have designated two Native American colleges run by the U.S. Department of the Interior as voter registration agencies. Kentucky and Michigan have said they will designate Veterans Administration offices in their states. Michigan also plans to add Federal Small Business Administration offices.
A group of Republicans, who serve as their states’ top election officials, also criticized the order, calling it federal overreach in administering elections in states.
West Virginia Secretary of State MacWarner sent a letter in May 2022 asking Biden to rescind it and spoke out against it when testifying before Congress last year. A few months ago, he issued 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 timely and accurate registration services before elections,” he said in a statement in April.
In May, Warner joined eight other GOP secretaries of state to petition the U.S. Supreme Court asking the justices to take up a case challenging the order. The others were from Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, Tennessee and Wyoming.
The court rejected a call for the case to be brought and decided by the end of June and will not consider it for the first time until the justices’ first private conference in early autumn. In the unlikely event that the court agrees to hear the case, discussions would not take place until early next year.
Republicans opposing the executive order have labeled 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 was subsequently distributed to electoral offices. Republicans claimed the “Zuckerbucks” effort was an attempt to benefit Democrats.
David Becker, former Justice Department lawyer who leads the Center for Election Innovation & Research, said the timing of the growing criticism — years after Biden issued the executive order and just months before the presidential election — is noteworthy.
“This is being portrayed as a deep state power grab, when in reality it is an effort to ensure that eligible citizens who are involved with the federal government can easily register or have their registration updated,” Becker said. “It’s as innocuous 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, something Republicans have said is necessary.
“It’s good for electoral integrity. It’s good for participation,” Becker said. “It didn’t used to be controversial.”
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Associated Press writer Mark Sherman in Washington contributed to this report.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
