NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday said she would wait to decide whether to grant a preliminary injunction to national Democrats and voting rights groups that are challenging President Donald Trump’s recent executive order on elections.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington, D.C., said she would consider each party's responses to her questions and aim for a ruling in the next week.
The Democratic National Committee, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the League of Women Voters Education Fund and others are seeking to block Trump's sweeping overhaul of federal election processes, which, among other changes, would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.
The Republican president’s executive order says the U.S. has failed “to enforce basic and necessary election protections” and calls on states to work with federal agencies to share voter lists and prosecute election crimes. It threatens to pull federal funding from states where election officials don’t comply.
It also aims to mandate major changes to election processes, including adding a proof-of-citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form and requiring all mail ballots to be received, rather than just postmarked, by Election Day nationwide.
The plaintiffs argue Trump’s order is illegal because it asserts power that he does not have over an independent agency. That agency, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, sets voluntary voting system guidelines and maintains the federal voter registration form.
The plaintiffs also argue the order violates the Constitution, which says that states — not the president — get to decide the “times, places and manner” of how elections are run. The Constitution's so-called Elections Clause also gives Congress the power to “make or alter” election regulations, at least for federal office, but it doesn’t mention any presidential authority over election administration.
During the hearing, Danielle Lang, counsel for the nonpartisan groups suing the Trump administration, said requiring citizenship proof would complicate her clients’ voter registration drives at grocery stores and other public places.
It would make them “far more cumbersome, far more difficult, and far less effective,” she said.
Aria Branch, counsel for the Democrats, said her clients would face similar harms. She also argued a provision in the executive order to tighten mail ballot deadlines would irreparably harm her clients by forcing them to reallocate resources to help voters navigate the changes.
“That’s time, money and organizational resources and strategy that can’t be recouped,” she said. “And with elections, I’m sure your honor knows, every single day is important.”
The judge asked Michael Gates, counsel for the Trump administration, if it would constitute harm if a federal voter registration agency declined to provide a voter registration form to an eligible person because they could not immediately assess citizenship.
“They can go down the street to the DMV,” Gates said. “Inconvenience is not a harm.”
Also at issue during the hearing was whether the government has already begun implementing the documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement in the order. The plaintiffs pointed to an April 11 letter from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to states “seeking consultation” on how they would want to see it implemented.
Gates said the official process to implement the provision hasn't begun.
“The executive order hasn't been implemented, and the federal form won't be updated for many, many, many many months," he said. “That alone undermines the need for an injunction.”
The hearing comes as other lawsuits against Trump’s executive order are pending.
Earlier this month, 19 Democratic attorneys general asked the court to reject Trump’s executive order. The following day, Washington and Oregon, two states that hold all-mail elections, followed up with their own lawsuit against the order.
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Associated Press writer Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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Ali Swenson, The Associated Press
