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USA Today
13-06-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
US judge blocks Trump administration from overhauling federal elections
US judge blocks Trump administration from overhauling federal elections BOSTON, June 13 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday blocked President Donald Trump's administration from implementing parts of his sweeping executive order overhauling federal elections, including by requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and barring states from counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day. U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston issued a preliminary injunction at the behest of 19 Democratic-led states who had argued that the Republican president lacked the authority to mandate changes to elections and the states' voting procedures. The lawsuit is one of several across the nation challenging Trump's March 25 executive order, which he signed after years of raising doubts about the integrity of the U.S. electoral system and falsely claiming that his 2020 loss to Democratic former President Joe Biden resulted from widespread voter fraud. While parts of Trump's order had already been blocked in April by a judge in Washington, Casper's ruling went further as she concluded the states had established key pieces of the president's order were likely unlawful and unconstitutional. "The Constitution does not grant the president any specific powers over elections," Casper, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, wrote. She said "the text of the Election Day statutes require only that all votes are cast by Election Day, not that they are received by that date." As a result, nothing bars 13 of the suing states that accept mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day from counting them, the judge wrote, as she blocked the U.S. Department of Justice from pursuing civil or criminal enforcement actions against any states that do not comply with Trump's order. Casper also faulted provisions of Trump's order tasking the U.S. Election Assistance Commission with updating the federal voter registration form to require people to submit documentary proof they are U.S. citizens. She said no one disputes that U.S. citizenship is required to vote in federal elections, but "the authority for election requirements is in the hands of Congress," which has never required documentary proof of citizenship. The White House did not respond to a request for comment, but the administration in court had argued that Trump's order was lawful and that any legal challenge to its provisions was premature. In announcing the executive order, Trump said it was needed to "straighten out our elections." He and his Republican allies have made baseless claims about widespread voting by non-citizens, which rarely occurs. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Mark Porter, Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)
05-06-2025
- Politics
Trump administration accuses Wisconsin of violating federal election law
MADISON, Wis. -- The Trump administration has accused the Wisconsin Elections Commission of failing to provide a state-based complaint process for voters bringing allegations against the commission itself, calling that a violation of federal law and threatening to withhold all federal funding. But the commission's Democratic chairwoman said Thursday there is no federal funding to cut and she disputed accusations raised in a Department of Justice letter a day earlier, saying it would be nonsensical for the commission to determine whether complaints against it were valid. 'What they're asking is, if someone files a complaint against us, we're supposed to hold a hearing to determine if we messed up," Ann Jacobs said. 'That is not functional.' It marks the second time in a week that the Trump administration has targeted election leaders in battleground states. Last week, the Justice Department accused North Carolina's election board of violating federal law by failing to ensure voter registration records of some applicants contained identifying numbers. The latest letter from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division accused Wisconsin of violating the Help America Vote Act for not having a state-based administrative complaint procedure to address alleged violations by the state elections commission of the 2002 federal law. Actions by the Wisconsin Elections Commission 'have left complainants alleging HAVA violations by the Commission without any recourse,' attorneys for the Justice Department wrote. 'With no opportunity or means to appeal, complainants are left stranded with their grievances.' The elections commission just received the letter and has no comment while it is being reviewed, spokesman John Smalley said. But Jacobs, chairwoman of the commission, said the commission can't decide complaints against itself. Jacobs said that position was backed up by a 2022 ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court when it was controlled by conservatives. 'It appears that they're like, 'How dare you follow state law,'" Jacobs said. "I don't know what it is they want us to do.' According to the letter, Wisconsin has received more than $77 million in federal funding from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and the Justice Department threatened to stop any future payments. But Jacobs said that money was allocated years ago and the state currently receives no funding from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and none is proposed, leaving nothing to cut. Nonetheless, the letter could put state funding in jeopardy. Republican leaders of the state Legislature's budget committee delayed a scheduled Thursday vote on how much state funding the Wisconsin Elections Commission will receive over the next two years. 'Out of caution, we think we're just going to wait and see,' the committee's co-chair Sen. Howard Marklein said. 'We need to analyze this and see what implications are made, maybe for the entire Elections Commission, and what impact that may have on the budget.'
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration accuses Wisconsin of violating federal election law
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Trump administration has accused the Wisconsin Elections Commission of failing to provide a state-based complaint process for voters bringing allegations against the commission itself, calling that a violation of federal law and threatening to withhold all federal funding. But the commission's Democratic chairwoman said Thursday there is no federal funding to cut and she disputed accusations raised in a Department of Justice letter a day earlier, saying it would be nonsensical for the commission to determine whether complaints against it were valid. 'What they're asking is, if someone files a complaint against us, we're supposed to hold a hearing to determine if we messed up," Ann Jacobs said. 'That is not functional.' It marks the second time in a week that the Trump administration has targeted election leaders in battleground states. Last week, the Justice Department accused North Carolina's election board of violating federal law by failing to ensure voter registration records of some applicants contained identifying numbers. The latest letter from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division accused Wisconsin of violating the Help America Vote Act for not having a state-based administrative complaint procedure to address alleged violations by the state elections commission of the 2002 federal law. Actions by the Wisconsin Elections Commission 'have left complainants alleging HAVA violations by the Commission without any recourse,' attorneys for the Justice Department wrote. 'With no opportunity or means to appeal, complainants are left stranded with their grievances.' The elections commission just received the letter and has no comment while it is being reviewed, spokesman John Smalley said. But Jacobs, chairwoman of the commission, said the commission can't decide complaints against itself. Jacobs said that position was backed up by a 2022 ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court when it was controlled by conservatives. 'It appears that they're like, 'How dare you follow state law,'" Jacobs said. "I don't know what it is they want us to do.' According to the letter, Wisconsin has received more than $77 million in federal funding from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and the Justice Department threatened to stop any future payments. But Jacobs said that money was allocated years ago and the state currently receives no funding from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and none is proposed, leaving nothing to cut. Nonetheless, the letter could put state funding in jeopardy. Republican leaders of the state Legislature's budget committee delayed a scheduled Thursday vote on how much state funding the Wisconsin Elections Commission will receive over the next two years. 'Out of caution, we think we're just going to wait and see,' the committee's co-chair Sen. Howard Marklein said. 'We need to analyze this and see what implications are made, maybe for the entire Elections Commission, and what impact that may have on the budget.' ___ Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed to this report.
Winnipeg Free Press
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Trump administration accuses Wisconsin of violating federal election law
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Trump administration has accused the Wisconsin Elections Commission of failing to provide a state-based complaint process for voters bringing allegations against the commission itself, calling that a violation of federal law and threatening to withhold all federal funding. But the commission's Democratic chairwoman said Thursday there is no federal funding to cut and she disputed accusations raised in a Department of Justice letter a day earlier, saying it would be nonsensical for the commission to determine whether complaints against it were valid. 'What they're asking is, if someone files a complaint against us, we're supposed to hold a hearing to determine if we messed up,' Ann Jacobs said. 'That is not functional.' It marks the second time in a week that the Trump administration has targeted election leaders in battleground states. Last week, the Justice Department accused North Carolina's election board of violating federal law by failing to ensure voter registration records of some applicants contained identifying numbers. The latest letter from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division accused Wisconsin of violating the Help America Vote Act for not having a state-based administrative complaint procedure to address alleged violations by the state elections commission of the 2002 federal law. Actions by the Wisconsin Elections Commission 'have left complainants alleging HAVA violations by the Commission without any recourse,' attorneys for the Justice Department wrote. 'With no opportunity or means to appeal, complainants are left stranded with their grievances.' The elections commission just received the letter and has no comment while it is being reviewed, spokesman John Smalley said. But Jacobs, chairwoman of the commission, said the commission can't decide complaints against itself. Jacobs said that position was backed up by a 2022 ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court when it was controlled by conservatives. 'It appears that they're like, 'How dare you follow state law,'' Jacobs said. 'I don't know what it is they want us to do.' According to the letter, Wisconsin has received more than $77 million in federal funding from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and the Justice Department threatened to stop any future payments. But Jacobs said that money was allocated years ago and the state currently receives no funding from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and none is proposed, leaving nothing to cut. Nonetheless, the letter could put state funding in jeopardy. Republican leaders of the state Legislature's budget committee delayed a scheduled Thursday vote on how much state funding the Wisconsin Elections Commission will receive over the next two years. 'Out of caution, we think we're just going to wait and see,' the committee's co-chair Sen. Howard Marklein said. 'We need to analyze this and see what implications are made, maybe for the entire Elections Commission, and what impact that may have on the budget.' ___ Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed to this report.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pa. is the last state to elect poll workers. Local officials say they're short 1000s of candidates.
This article is made possible through Spotlight PA's collaboration with Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting. Sign up for Votebeat's free newsletters here. Pennsylvania voters went to the polls last week to help carry on a centuries-old practice that no other state does: elections to choose their election workers. 'It was a great idea in the 1800s that they never got rid of,' said Thad Hall, Mercer County's election director, who just oversaw a primary to select the Democratic and Republican candidates for more than 150 poll worker positions. Counties are still finalizing the results from the May 20 election. The counting includes the slow process of tabulating write-in votes, as many races don't have candidates listed on the ballot. In Mercer County, roughly 50% of the positions did not have a nominated candidate, Hall said, and he suspects 'a lot' of his open positions won't have a candidate on the ballot in November, either. There are over 9,000 voting precincts in the state, and each has three positions that need to be elected: a judge of election, and a majority and minority inspector. That means every four years, the state needs to elect more than 27,000 workers. Rarely are there enough candidates to compete in all those races. Hall said people have been known to write in their friends or family members as a joke, and those people end up winning — sometimes with just a single vote. 'You email people and they're like, 'Are you serious? Are you kidding?' And then they've got to decide if they want to do it,' he said. 'People think you're pulling their leg, because someone was pulling their leg in the first place.' Historians say Pennsylvania has been electing poll workers since 1799. According to data from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, it's the only state in the country that directly elects the poll workers who run voting precincts. Most states choose them through appointment. And in Pennsylvania, if no candidate is elected in November, or the elected candidate resigns, county election directors are permitted to appoint someone to the position. Some New England states elect town officials who oversee voting locations as part of their job, but they don't necessarily elect workers for every precinct, instead hiring or appointing additional people. Most states have adopted an appointment system. The last state to do away with the practice of electing election workers was Rhode Island, in 2009. Former Rhode Island state Rep. Michael Marcello, a Democrat, wrote the bill that ended those elections. He said at the time that the change would prevent these positions from being politicized. But co-sponsor Scott Pollard, also a Democrat, recalled that there was also a more practical reason: 'We were having tremendous difficulty actually getting people to put their name on a ballot to run.' One deterrent, Pollard said, was that would-be poll workers in Rhode Island were required to file the financial forms that political candidates often have to submit to disclose any potential financial conflicts of interest. 'People are willing to do community service,' he said, 'but you can't make them jump through too many hoops to do it.' In Pennsylvania, poll worker candidates don't have to file statements of financial interest, but there are other hoops they have to jump through. As in Rhode Island, poll workers here run as partisans in the primary. To get on the primary ballot, they have to file nomination petitions, signed by enough local voters. A candidate for election judge, who oversees the voting precinct, must obtain signatures from 10 qualified voters. A candidate for inspector, who signs in voters and checks their registrations among other tasks, must get five signatures to qualify. Jay Schneider, a Chester County resident who served as an appointed judge in his precinct for the 2024 election, told Votebeat and Spotlight PA in March that these hurdles were part of the reason he chose not to run for the position this year. But not getting on the primary ballot isn't necessarily a barrier, given the lack of demand for the job. Hall, from Mercer County, said the kind of all-appointment system that most states use would help election directors. It would make it easier to move workers around if there are personality conflicts, and to remove problematic workers if needed. Additionally, it would save them the logistical burden of having hundreds of extra positions on their ballots. Jeff Greenburg, a former election director who now works for the good-government group Committee of Seventy, said that switching to an all-appointment system may solve some of the administrative problems with electing poll workers, but he wants to see more solid evidence that the switch would fix the bigger issue of poll worker shortages. Pennsylvania election officials, like many elsewhere, have struggled to keep their precincts fully staffed in recent years. 'As one person said, 'We just want someone who's breathing,'' said Devin Rhoads, Snyder County's election director. Rhoads argues that electing poll workers has benefits, too, such as imbuing the positions with an added sense of responsibility. 'If a person is elected, it carries more weight,' Rhoads said, adding that those workers will have the mindset of, 'Well, l signed up for this.' 'If you're appointed, maybe it kind of gives you a little bit of wiggle room, like, 'Well, I was just appointed, I can get out of it,'' he said. The catch in this logic is that people actually have to be willing to run for the poll worker positions. And in many places, they aren't. Rhoads estimates that roughly two-thirds of Snyder County's election worker positions won't have candidates on the ballot in the fall municipal election, meaning some workers will need to be appointed. In Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh, officials say 3,500 of the roughly 4,000 elected poll worker positions on the November ballot will lack a candidate. 'People don't want to run for these positions,' said Abigail Gardner, a county spokesperson. Formally switching from an elected to an appointed poll worker system would require state legislation. Short of that, there are other things the state could do to help recruit poll workers. First, Greenburg said, counties should increase pay. The state's Election Code currently sets minimum pay at $75 for the day. But a poll worker's day is usually at least 13 hours, which works out to an hourly rate that's less than minimum wage. A bill that recently passed the state House would increase that minimum to $175, but many counties are already moving beyond that. Philadelphia offered $295 for workers in the May 20 primary. Greenberg also thinks the process for getting on the ballot should be simplified. Instead of collecting signatures on a nominating petition, he said, it could be enough for a candidate to sign an affidavit affirming that they are qualified to run for the office. Carter Walker is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with Spotlight PA. Contact Carter at cwalker@ If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 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