A federal judge prevented the government of President Donald Trump on Friday to implement parts of his extensive executive order, which seeks to reform federal elections, including demanding an American citizenship evidence to register to vote and prohibit states from telling the states to tell the voting ballots by mail received after the day of the elections.
The American district judge, Denise Casper in Boston, issued a preliminary court order to 19 states led by Democrats who had argued that the Republican President lacked authority to order changes in the elections and voting procedures of the States.
The demand is one of several throughout the country that challenge Trump’s executive order of March 25, which he signed after years of generating doubts about the integrity of the US electoral system and falsely affirming that his 2020 defeat before the former Democratic President Joe Biden was the result of a generalized electoral fraud.
Although parts of Trump’s order had already been blocked in April by a judge in Washington, Casper’s ruling went further, concluding that the states had established that key parts of the president’s order were probably illegal and unconstitutional.
Lee: Judge says that Trump must yield the National Guard control in Governor Newsom
“The Constitution does not grant the President any specific power over the elections,” Casper wrote.
In addition, he said that “the text of the election day statutes only requires that all votes be cast before the day of the election, not to be received before that date.”
As a result, nothing prevents 13 of the plaintiffs, who accept votes by mail with Matasellos on election day, tell them, the judge wrote. While preventing the United States Department of Justice from undertaking civil or criminal actions against any state that does not comply with the Trump order.
Casper also criticized the provisions of the Trump order entrusting to the United States Electoral Assistance Commission to update the federal voter registration form to demand that people present documentary evidence that they are US citizens.
He said that no one discusses that American citizenship is necessary to vote in federal elections, but “the authority on electoral requirements is in the hands of Congress”, which has never demanded documentary proof of citizenship.
The White House did not respond to a request for comments, but the administration in court had argued that Trump’s order was legal and that any legal challenge to its provisions was premature.
When announcing the executive order, Trump said it was necessary to “establish a fairer electoral order.” He and his Republican allies have made unfounded statements about the generalized vote of people without citizenship, something that rarely happens.
With Reuters information
Follow the information about the world in our international section
