Star-Advertiser staff
and Los Angeles Times
Hawaii has joined 19 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and his administration alleging his executive order requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote is unconstitutional.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on Thursday, also alleges Trump’s executive order attempts to upend state procedures to count ballots.
Further, Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez said in a statement, “The Elections Executive Order intrudes on Congress’ and the states’ power over elections. This unlawful effort to usurp election authority will irreparably harm the states and interfere with the lawful exercise of the right to vote.”
The litigation is being led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford.
In a statement, Bonta called Trump’s executive order “nothing but a blatantly illegal power grab and an attempt to disenfranchise voters. Neither the Constitution nor Congress authorize the President’s attempted voting restrictions. We will not be bullied by him. We will fight like hell in court to stop him.”
Trump falsely asserted that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
On March 25, Trump issued his “Preserving and Protecting the
Integrity of American Election.”
Other groups, including prominent Democratic organizations, members of Congress and leading civil rights organizations, also sued to block Trump’s order earlier this week.
The White House has dismissed the challenges as misguided, accusing Democrats of raising “insane objections” to “commonsense” election protections.
Trump has claimed for years, without evidence, that fraud is rampant in American elections and that voting by noncitizen immigrants is a major problem.
If upheld by the courts, Trump’s executive order would require all voters in the U.S. to show proof of U.S. citizenship — such as a passport or REAL ID — before they could register to vote in any federal election. Trump has claimed such requirements would help to eliminate fraudulent voting by noncitizens.
Voting rights advocates say the requirement would disenfranchise many American citizens who have the right to vote but do not have such documentation readily available. Critics of Trump’s policy also point out that voting by noncitizens is extremely rare and already illegal in federal elections.
Trump’s order also would require states to disregard mail ballots that are not received by Election Day. Some states currently have different rules, including California, which accepts ballots if they are postmarked by Election Day.
Bonta said Trump’s order was more evidence of Trump’s “utter disdain for the rule of law.”
“Let me remind him: He
is not a king,” Bonta said. “When he took office, he swore to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’ He also has a constitutional obligation to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed,’ and that doesn’t involve rewriting them however he sees fit.”
White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said in a statement that Democrats “continue to show their disdain for the Constitution and it continues to show in their insane objections to the President’s commonsense executive actions to require proof of U.S. citizenship in an effort to protect the integrity of American elections.”
Besides Hawaii, Nevada and California, other states participating in the suit are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.
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