Oregon and Washington AGs File Lawsuit Against Trump’s Executive Order That Will Erode Confidence in Elections

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield and the neighboring Washington state AG, have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s executive order on elections and voting rights which they say will make it more difficult to vote, erode public confidence in elections, and make elections most costly for states to administer.

A Blatant Attempt to Rig the System

Rayfield says the executive order is a ‘blatant attempt to rig the system and suppress votes.’ Furthermore, he describes the wording of the executive order as ‘confusing’ and an assault on the Constitution.

In a news release, Rayfield says the Election Clause of the Constitution gives states the authority to run their elections.

The only exceptions are actions by Congress. However, the executive order also violates the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act by making it more difficult for people to cast their ballots.

The lawsuit by the two AGs seeks to declare most of the provisions in the order as unconstitutional and to prevent the federal government from implementing or enforcing President Donald Trump’s order.

Rayfield says the President’s accusations on the outcome of the 2020 election which he lost to Joe Biden are well documented, and that his rhetoric on widespread election fraud proved to be false.

Changes to the Vote-By-Mail System Will Disenfranchise Voters

In the news release, Rayfield says the President made similar false claims about vote-by-mail, pointing out that Oregon was the first state to introduce the system in a presidential election. The voting system was administered by both Democrat and Republican Secretaries of State.

He says both Oregon and Washington support vote-by-mail which he describes as ‘safe, secure, and popular with voters’ because it improves ‘access to democracy.’

The executive order requires votes sent by mail to arrive no later than Election Day to be included in the count, even though 18 states, including Washington and Oregon, accept ballots postmarked on or before Election Day.

Furthermore, the two AGs describe the requirement that voters provide proof of citizenship as ‘illegal and burdensome,’ and as a move that will disenfranchise voters.

The AGs point to a 2023 report by the Brennan Center for Justice that found that about 9% of  citizens of voting age do not have proof of  citizenship documents readily available.