A federal judge has permanently barred President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing most of his first executive order on elections.

A federal judge on Wednesday permanently barred President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing most of his first executive order on elections, part of which sought to require people to show documentary proof of citizenship when they register to vote.

The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper in Boston effectively converts a preliminary injunction she issued a year ago, in which she temporarily blocked many of Trump’s efforts to overhaul elections, into a permanent ban.

Casper rejected the administration’s argument that the lawsuit to block the changes brought by Democratic state attorneys general was premature because the rules had yet to be implemented. Instead, she agreed that the Constitution gives states and Congress the authority to regulate elections, and that Trump’s requirements violated the separation of powers.

  • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    6 days ago

    While the ID requirements vary, you already have to show some form of acceptable ID to register.

    Actually, that’s not true. The Federal voter registration form doesn’t require the filer to produce any ID to file it. It does, however, require you to attest (under penalty of perjury) that you are a citizen. And since you have also given them your full name and address where you live, they can find you easily enough. (You could lie about your address, I suppose, but then you would be voting in the wrong place…)

    Republicans have used this as an excuse to say that the entire system encourages fraud, and that there must be oodles of people lying on the forms. (I guess because dishonesty comes so easily to them?). Some Republican states with strict voter ID laws go so far as to require that if a voter sends in the Federal form (which the State must accept), that voter will only be allowed to vote in Federal elections, and can’t vote for state or local offices until they register a second time with their ID.

    But trying to fraudulently vote as a non-citizen is the stupidest type of fraud. Each registration comes with an invitation for the government to investigate your background and prosecute if you are lying, complete with all of your identifying information. And for what benefit? Getting to cast a single vote that (in nearly all cases) won’t affect the outcome by itself?

    Republicans’ reasoning for strict voter ID laws simply don’t stand up to any rational analysis, unless you realize their real goal is to disenfranchise people who can’t afford to (or can’t manage to keep) their ID. What if a homeless person, who is a US citizen but can’t afford their ID, wants to vote. Should they be deemed ineligible simply because they don’t have their long-form birth certificate on their person?