BOSTON, April 3 (Reuters) – A coalition of Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit on Friday challenging U.S. President Donald Trump’s new executive order tightening rules on mail‑in voting.
The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Boston, added to the rising number of legal challenges taking aim at the order Trump signed on Tuesday, with cases also being pursued by arms of the Democratic Party and voting rights advocates.
The case was filed by attorneys general in 22 states and the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat.
“Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy, and no president has the power to rewrite the rules on his own,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, said in a statement.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson in a statement responded: “Only Democrat politicians and operatives would be upset about lawful efforts to secure American elections and ensure only eligible American citizens are casting ballots.”
Trump, a Republican, has for years pushed the false claim that his 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread voter fraud and has called for tighter rules on voting by mail ahead of the November midterm elections.
His executive order directs his administration to compile a list of confirmed U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state and to use federal data to help state election officials verify who is eligible to vote.
It also requires the U.S. Postal Service to only deliver ballots to voters on each state’s approved mail-in ballot list. States must also preserve election-related records for five years.
The state attorneys general argue Trump’s order violates the U.S. Constitution and unlawfully interferes with mail-in voting by directing USPS to block the delivery of ballots based on criteria outside the states’ control.
They said allowing Trump’s order to stand would force states to rush to overhaul their election systems before November, causing chaos and likely disenfranchising eligible voters.
Trump has also been pressing Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID to cast a ballot. The bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives in February but faces long odds in the Senate.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Andrea Ricci)
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