Biden’s 2021 Voting Access Order Targeted by Republican Lawsuits

Zoe Tillman
·3-min read

(Bloomberg) -- Republicans are targeting a three-year-old voter registration initiative to draw the Biden administration into court fights and cast suspicion on the November election months before Americans head to the polls.

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The latest case was filed this week by GOP state attorneys general claiming a White House executive order directing agencies to promote voting access unlawfully intrudes on state power to run elections. Similar lawsuits were filed earlier this year by Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican party, Pennsylvania state lawmakers and a conservative advocacy group.

One lawsuit was already tossed out. Others were filed in the past month and it’s unclear how fast courts will move before the Nov. 5 election when voters will decide the US president and federal lawmakers. Critics contend the suits are an effort to use the courts to boost Republican messaging.

“I would describe these complaints as more like political statements than like actual meritorious legal claims,” said Jonathan Diaz, director of voting advocacy and partnerships for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. “If there was any basis to challenge this executive order it would have probably come sooner than three years after it was enacted.”

President Joe Biden signed the executive order in 2021, shortly after Trump’s unsuccessful effort to overturn the last presidential election by pressing baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. The order directed agency heads to explore ways to support voter registration, such as sharing information on government websites, making forms available at federal offices and partnering with states and nonpartisan organizations to do on-site registrations.

The order made clear that any agency action had to comply with state laws.

An RNC spokesperson declined to comment. A spokesperson for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, who is leading the coalition that filed suit this week, also did not return a request for comment.

Manipulation Claims

Mike Berry, executive director of the conservative America First Policy Institute’s Center for Litigation, which filed a suit last month, said in an email that July was the fastest they could “carefully examine” how the order was being implemented and draft a lawsuit after he joined the organization in March.

“In practical terms, it takes a lot of time to gather sufficient evidence to proceed,” he wrote.

Missouri’s attorney general filed a case on Aug. 1. Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft had been “looking at this since it came out and felt that now was the time to proceed,” said his spokesperson JoDonn Chaney, when asked about timing.

The lawsuits accuse Biden and agencies of overstepping. When the Republican National Committee filed its case in Michigan in mid-July along with Trump’s campaign, RNC Chairman Michael Whatley released a statement alleging Biden and Democratic state officials were trying to “manipulate” the election.

In court papers, US government lawyers have said the order was aimed at educating citizens and supporting registration under state laws, and didn’t change “who could legally vote or how or when they could legally vote.”

Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania filed suit in January, arguing Biden’s order interfered with their power to set state laws. A federal judge dismissed it in March, finding the individual legislators lacked standing to sue.

The lawmakers appealed but also petitioned the US Supreme Court to immediately hear the case. The justices are expected to consider it when they meet in late September.

Trump and the RNC’s case in Michigan focuses on a part of the order that empowers federal agencies to be designated as voter registration sites. They’re challenging agreements reached in late 2023 and early this year between Michigan and the Small Business Administration and Department of Veterans Affairs.

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