Ohio Secretary of State Frank Larose applauds the Trump administration for repealing the 2021 executive order directing federal agencies to offer voter registration materials when interacting with citizens. Larose was one of a handful of Republican state officials who sued the Biden administration over the policy last year.
Meanwhile, voting rights supporters land somewhere between frustrated and irrelevant. They claim that many people interact with federal agencies and that the program simply presents reliable voting and voter registration information. How could they, they ask, “arm” the federal government?
Lawsuit and resignation
The lawsuit Larose joined was filed by the America First Policy Institute – a sort of second Trump administration in anticipation of several figures from his first administration. . complaint claimed that, thanks to the effortless sharing of information, the order was “an egregious and illegal effort to use taxpayer money to help Democratic candidates, including President Biden.”
After all, the complaint argued, people who speak another language, work for the federal government, receive housing or food benefits, and students, Native Americans, people with disabilities or incarceration tend to vote Democratic. Moreover, any effort to offer these people assist must necessarily be a partisan turnout effort.
Take out the vote business, they argued: “Inevitably increase the net turnout that the party has majority support in this area” and “cannot be conducted in an impartial manner.”
Although Biden issued his executive order in 2021, Larose and AFPI did not file a lawsuit, challenging it only last July on the eve of the 2024 election. The parties quietly put the case on hold after Trump won the race.
Following Trump’s executive action to rescind Biden’s policies, Larose rushed that “the Biden administration’s attempt to use federal resources for partisan election activities will threaten to undermine the fairness and neutrality of our election processes.” “I was proud to fight this federal overreach and applaud President Trump’s decisive action to reaffirm his administration’s commitment to transparent and fair elections.”
Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who leads AFPI’s election integrity work, praised Trump’s “quick action to ensure that federal government agencies are no longer armed when it comes to voter registration.”
“We applaud him for prioritizing this issue on day one and encourage his new administration to investigate all actions taken by federal agencies under EO 14019,” he added. “Finally, Americans can trust that the federal government does not provide a partisan advantage to one voter registration or another.”
“It’s so kosher”
Lisa Danetz is an attorney who serves as an advisor to the Brennan Center. Last June, she testified before Congress at a hearing questioning the Small Business Administration’s efforts to respond to Biden’s executive order.
She explained to lawmakers Federal agencies helped with voter registration in the 1950s, when the Department of Defense created the Overseas Voter Assistance Program. The federal government recently directed motor vehicle licensing agencies to offer voter registration forms to eligible citizens; The same law directs military recruiting offices, which are federal entities, to also serve as voter registration agencies.
Danetz argued that the executive is continuing that effort.
“Everyone interacts with the federal government in one way or another,” she said. “So this is an attempt to achieve full population and provide access to voter registration opportunities.”
Danetz cautioned that he couldn’t say how significantly Trump’s decision would affect voter registration.
“I would say I find it sad,” she said. “This is a way to get voter registration opportunities and reliable voting information to people from all walks of life and across the political spectrum and to have those opportunities withdrawn and put on hold, I mean to me as an American citizen, it’s disturbing.”
Danetz heard arguments like those laid out in the lawsuit when she testified before Congress and seemed somewhat surprised that providing aid would be viewed as partisan. She explained that the order imposes the same requirements that information remain impartial that govern voter registration with the BMV.
“It’s so kosher,” she said.
Kayla Griffin-Green, who leads the Ohio chapter of All Voices, is a local, disappointed with the move. She noted in addition to the BMV, several other state agencies, including Job and Family Services, provide voting information to people seeking assistance. Griffin-Green argued that there should be more of a “no wrong door” approach to voting on whether an agency is state- or federal-run.
“I think we should move away from thinking about similar work,” she said. “We should want an engaged voting population. We should want everyone to engage in democracy, and this shows us that we are looking for ways to close the door on people. “
She called it “absurd” and an “erosion of our democratic system” to assume that federal aid is an inherently partisan exercise.
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