NJ Joins 22 States In Challenging Trump’s Newest Election Policy

New Jersey has joined nearly half the country in challenging President Donald Trump’s latest changes to the country’s election systems.

New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport joins 23 attorneys general and one governor in suing Trump over his decision to peel back mail-in voting policies.

On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order that limits the number of people who are able to vote by mail. Essentially, the only people who would be allowed access to mail-in ballots would be those on a pre-authorized list created by the federal government.

The lists will be created by the Department of Homeland Security using federal citizenship and naturalization records, SSA records, SAVE data, and other relevant federal databases, according to the White House.

Additionally, the order instructs the U.S. Postal Service to send mail ballots only to registered voters who appear on what the White House calls "State Citizenship Lists."

The Administration says the move will ensure “citizenship verification and integrity in federal elections.”

Trump, who called mail-in voting “mail-in cheating” just weeks ago, has been met with criticism after he used a mail-in ballot to vote in a special election in Florida last month.

Now, with Democrats’ criticism comes litigation. The suit, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, calls the executive order unconstitutional.

It says that the policies would “upend” states’ election systems and create “confusion, chaos, and distrust in state election systems, all while threatening to disenfranchise eligible voters,” especially with primary elections just months away.

“The Constitution makes clear that states administer elections in America – not the federal government,” said Davenport. “Changes to election rules cannot be made by the President through a blatantly unlawful executive order that seeks to disenfranchise voters in the name of debunked conspiracy theories about widespread fraud from voting by mail. Americans trust their local and state officials to run free, fair, and secure elections. We are confident the courts will reject this blatant power grab.”

In New Jersey, roughly 20 to 30 percent of votes cast were cast by mail in the last five years. The method has become an increasingly popular voting option since the COVID-19 pandemic, when voters couldn’t gather at a polling place to vote in-person.

The Trump Administration plans to withhold federal funding to states that do not comply with the policy changes, according to the White House.

Joining New Jersey in the suit are attorneys general of California, Massachusetts, Nevada, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, and the Governor of Pennsylvania.