Mississippi officials joined eight Republican-led states in a lawsuit to shut down efforts by the Biden administration to encourage voting.
President Biden issued Executive Order 14019 authorizing federal agencies to expand voter registration efforts and collaborate after mostly white members of Congress derailed the passage of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021. In response, Gov. Tate Reeves, Secretary of State Michael Watson, and Attorney General Lynn Fitch are now joining a suit opposing that 2021 executive order.
Plaintiffs, who are predominantly white, say they are furious Pres. Biden seeks to undermine a racist Jim Crow law that white Mississippi leaders continue to defend in court. Because of the order, the U.S. Attorney General is now working to register people who are currently incarcerated to vote, in defiance of a felony disenfranchisement law created by racists in Mississippi in the state’s 1890 constitution to discourage Black voting. The Department of Justice, they point out, is providing “information about voting to individuals in federal custody, [facilitating] voting by those who remain eligible to do so while in federal custody, and [educating] individuals before reentry about voting rules and voting rights in their states.”
Watson himself vehemently defended Mississippi’s Jim Crow Law in a New Orleans court earlier this year and refused to take questions from BGX about his defense of the law. Watson also opposes vote-facilitating efforts like early voting, mail-in voting, automatic registration, and because it encourages “‘woke’ college university students” to vote.
Plaintiff arguments in the suit echo many pro-Jim Crow arguments against voting rights in the nation’s ugly past, particularly states’ right to restrict voting however they see fit.
“States have plenary authority to regulate state elections,” Mississippi officials claim. “… Thus, States can establish rules relating to voter registration, including how persons register and who may participate in voter registration activities.”
Plaintiffs say the EO harms states’ sovereign interests by undermining 10th Amendment guarantees of states’ authority to regulate their own elections and voter qualifications, including voter registration for elections. To be clear, the state of Virginia once claimed education policies, particularly segregation, were also “state’s rights” under the 10th Amendment.
Republican state leaders add the Executive Order fails to “identify a congressional law that authorizes the President to use federal departments and agencies to engage in voter registration drives.”
Plaintiffs appear to also take issue with the Department of Treasury providing info and training to third-party partners who want to include voter registration services with free tax services they provide to eligible customers, namely retirees and low-income citizens. They also appear to oppose the Department of Interior encouraging Native Americans to vote.
“According to the September Fact Sheet, ‘The Department of the Interior will disseminate information on registering and voting, including through onsite events, at schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Education and Tribal Colleges and Universities, serving about 30,000 students. The Department will also, where possible, offer Tribal College and University campuses for designation by states as voter registration agencies under the National Voter Registration Act,’” Plaintiffs complain. The Dept. of Health and Human Services, they add, is also offering registration assistance to patients served by the Indian Health Service voter.
In addition, the Department of Agriculture, they point out, is daring to ramp up voting among rural residents. The USDA’s Rural Housing Service “will encourage the provision of nonpartisan voter information through its borrowers and guaranteed lenders,” and they gripe Rural Development agencies—“which are spread throughout field offices across the country where rural Americans can apply for housing, facilities, or business assistance—will take steps to promote access to voter registration forms and other pertinent nonpartisan election information among their patrons.”
Plaintiffs also appear miffed that The Department of Labor is issuing guidance to extend voter registration services to “more than 2,400 American Job Centers” that provide employment, training, and career services to U.S. citizens. They also do not appear to approve of the Department of Education promoting voting among college students by letting Federal Work Study funds compensate students for some voter registration activities. The federal government, they argue, is forcing schools to spend resources on voter registration efforts, including printing and distributing mail voter registration forms to students or risk putting their federal benefits at risk.
Finally, Watson, Gov. Reeves, AG Lynn Fitch, and others argue the federal government has “vast resources,” to beat back states’ efforts to discourage voting.
“Because of the resources it can bring to bear, the federal government can engage in voter registration activities on a scale that will, as a practical matter, swamp any State’s attempt to regulate the government’s actions.”
Plaintiffs ask the court to declare EO 14019 “unlawful, enjoined, and set aside,” along with agency actions to implement it.
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This article originally included "online voter registration" among the list of measures Secretary of State Michael Watson opposes. Watson's most recent opinion is that he supports online registration. We apologize for the misinformation.
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