A three-year-old Biden administration executive order meant to increase voter registration has been the object of growing criticism from Republicans and conservative groups, who see it as an effort to meddle in the November election and a violation of the Constitution.
The GOP is presenting the order in a certain light; for instance, in a recent fundraising email, they used the phrase “to act as Biden’s personal ‘Get-Out-The-Vote’ machine.”Subpoenas were recently issued to agency directors by a House committee run by Republicans, and a group of Republican secretaries of state petitioned the Supreme Court to hear a case contesting the order.
There has been little evidence that the order favors votes of one party over another, despite the right-wing resistance.
The government will maintain its commitment to protecting the voting rights of qualified individuals, independent of their party affiliation, according to White House spokeswoman Robyn Patterson. In 2021, when President Trump’s reelection was under question due to fabricated allegations of massive fraud, Biden issued the order while Republican state legislators across were discussing a surge of voting restrictions.
“These claims are completely without merit and have been put forth by the same individuals who propagated false information regarding the 2020 elections and have subsequently utilized that same information to push for legislation nationwide that restricts voting rights and makes it easier to dismantle the will of the people,” Patterson stated.
Find out what the order accomplishes, how government agencies have responded to it thus far, and what Republicans have to say about it right here.
Designed to simplify the voting process
It was Biden’s “duty to ensure that registering to vote and the act of voting be made simple and easy for all those eligible to do so” that prompted the March 7, 2021, executive order, which the president said would be carried out “consistent with applicable law.” The heads of the agencies were given 200 days to come up with a plan of action.
More than a dozen languages will be able to access voting information on the federal website vote.gov, as directed by the directive. While the site does not actively register voters, it does link users to their local and state election offices, where they can start the registration process.
An annual chance for active-duty military personnel to register, update their voter registration information, or obtain an absentee ballot is provided for in the order, which specifically requests that the Department of Defense establish mechanisms to do so.
Additionally, it mandates that as individuals in federal custody are getting ready for release, the Department of Justice to give them instructional materials regarding voting registration and restrictions that might prevent them from voting.
Republicans raise concerns about
Concerned that the administration had gone beyond its power and was ordering government agencies to engage in activities beyond their purpose, congressional Republicans sent a letter to the White House a year after the directive was issued.
Republican officials claimed that the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service had notified state agencies that the expense of registering new voters could be “reimbursed at the 50 percent level” as an allowable administrative expense under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Republicans voiced their alarm over the Biden administration’s use of the nation’s multi-billion dollar nourishment program for voter registration. They emphasized the need for more study of this matter.
A previous White House official who was involved in the order’s implementation claims that the letter omitted the fact that states are responsible for administering the food assistance program and that states were previously instructed to give information regarding voter registration under a federal law that was approved many years ago.
As White House senior policy adviser Justin Levitt pointed out, the agency was merely restating its earlier instructions that the costs in question were eligible for reimbursement.
After some time had passed, Republicans formally requested that government agencies detail their strategies for carrying with the directive by sending letters to those entities. As part of their comprehensive election bill from last year, they inserted language to revoke the executive order.
A two-week deadline was set for compliance last month by the chairman of the Committee on House Administration, who wrote letters asking documentation relevant to the order. Subpoenas were subsequently issued by the chair, Republican Representative Bryan Steil of Wisconsin. Aiming to “tilt the scales ahead of 2024,” he criticized the government order.
According to a White House official, the committee was in the process of receiving responses from several departments when it issued the subpoenas, and the Office of Management and Budget had already provided an initial response.
Signatory states must approve the order.
The federal agencies have not yet released their plans, but they have stated what they would do to meet the requirements of the directive.
Legal scholar and constitutional law specialist Levitt characterized the order as innovative but narrow in application. He claimed that prior to Biden’s executive order, only military recruiting offices assisted with voter registration, even though the law permits other agencies to do so. According to him, this can only be done by a federal agency upon a specific request from a state.
In his statement, Levitt explained that the majority of the actions taken by the agencies were in response to requests from states or clarifications made to the rules to ensure clarity.
Two federally funded Native American universities in Kansas and New Mexico have been designated as voter registration centers. Officials from the Veterans Administration have announced plans to open offices in the states of Kentucky and Michigan. The government Small Business Administration is also planning to open offices throughout Michigan.
Convincing the highest court to intervene
The directive has also drawn criticism from a group of Republican state election officials who see it as an intrusion by the federal government into state election administration.
Mac Warner, the secretary of state for West Virginia, asked Biden to withdraw it in a May 2022 letter and opposed it in a congressional testimony last year. His state has declined to accept voter registration paperwork obtained by federal agencies, according to a statement he made a few months ago.