NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� President Donald Trump's seeking to overhaul the nation's elections faced its first legal challenges Monday as the Democratic National Committee and a pair of nonprofits filed two separate lawsuits calling it unconstitutional.
The Campaign Legal Center and the State Democracy Defenders Fund brought the first Monday afternoon. The DNC, the Democratic Governors Association, and Senate and House Democratic leaders followed soon after with a of their own.
Both lawsuits filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ask the court to block Trump鈥檚 order and declare it illegal.
鈥淭he president鈥檚 executive order is an unlawful action that threatens to uproot our tried-and-tested election systems and silence potentially millions of Americans,鈥� said Danielle Lang, senior director of voting rights at the D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center. 鈥淚t is simply not within the president鈥檚 authority to set election rules by executive decree, especially when they would restrict access to voting in this way.鈥�
The White House didn鈥檛 respond to a request for comment.
The legal challenges had been expected after election lawyers warned some of Trump's demands in the order, including a proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration and new ballot deadline rules, .
The order also asserts power that legal experts say the president doesn't have over an independent agency. That agency, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, sets voluntary voting system guidelines and maintains the federal voter registration form.
The suits come as Congress is considering codifying a proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration into law, and as Trump has promised more actions related to elections in the coming weeks.
Both the legal challenges draw attention to the Constitution's 鈥� ,鈥� which says states 鈥� not the president 鈥� get to decide the 鈥渢imes, places and manner鈥� of how elections are run. That section of the Constitution also gives Congress the power to 鈥渕ake or alter鈥� election regulations, at least for federal office, but it doesn鈥檛 mention any presidential authority over election administration.
鈥淭he Constitution is clear: States set their own rules of the road when it comes to elections, and only Congress has the power to override these laws with respect to federal elections,鈥� said Lang, calling the executive order an 鈥渦nconstitutional executive overreach.鈥�
The lawsuits also argue the president's order could disenfranchise voters. The nonprofits' lawsuit names three voter advocacy organizations as plaintiffs that they allege are harmed by Trump's executive order: the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Secure Families Initiative and the Arizona Students鈥� Association.
The DNC's lawsuit highlights the role of the government's controversial cost-cutting arm, the Department of Government Efficiency.
It alleges the order's data-sharing requirements, including instructing DOGE to cross-reference federal data with state voter lists, violate Democrats' privacy rights and increase the risk that they will be harassed 鈥渂ased on false suspicions that they are not qualified to vote.鈥�
鈥淭his executive order is an unconstitutional power grab from Donald Trump that attacks vote by mail, gives DOGE sensitive personal information and makes it harder for states to run their own free and fair elections," reads a statement from the plaintiffs.
Trump, one of the , has argued this executive order will secure the vote against illegal voting by noncitizens. Multiple studies and investigations have shown that noncitizens casting ballots in federal elections, already a felony, .
Monday's lawsuits against Trump's elections order could be followed by more challenges. Other voting rights advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have said they're considering legal action. Several Democratic state attorneys general have said they are looking closely at the order and suspect it is illegal.
Meanwhile, Trump's order has received praise from the top election officials in some Republican states who say it could inhibit instances of voter fraud and give them access to federal data to better maintain their voter rolls.
If courts determine the order can stand, the changes Trump wants are likely to cause some headaches for both election administrators and voters. State election officials, who already have , would have to spend time and money to comply with the order, including potentially buying new voting systems and educating voters of the rules.
The proof-of-citizenship requirement also could cause confusion or voter disenfranchisement because millions of eligible voting-age Americans readily available. In , which had a proof-of-citizenship requirement for three years before it was overturned, the state's own expert estimated that almost all the roughly 30,000 people who were prevented from registering to vote during the time it was in effect were U.S. citizens who had been eligible.
Monday's lawsuits are the latest of the flurry of executive actions Trump has taken during the first months of his second term. Federal judges have partially or fully blocked many of them, including efforts to , and among federal contractors and grant recipients.
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Ali Swenson, The Associated Press
