Illinois AG moves to block Trump administration voter eligibility executive order

(WAND) — Attorney General Kwame Raoul is moving to permanently block President Donald Trump's executive order to establish a national list of eligible voters.

Raoul, as part of a coalition of 23 states, filed a motion for summary judgement Friday. The Attorney General's Office said the order "unlawfully restricts voter eligibility and who can receive mail ballots, while trampling on states' constitutional authority to administer elections."

The order, which was signed on March 31, would establish a national list of eligible voters and direct the U.S. Postal Service to send mail ballots only to those on the list. Raoul said that in the order, President Trump threatened states and election officials with criminal prosecution and the loss of federal funding if they do not comply.

The coalition's motion for summary judgement asks the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to permanently block enforcement of key provisions in the order. The motion argues that the order:

Attempts to dictate federal voter eligibility lists of each state, and to coerce states to deny ballots to voters excluded from those lists, which unconstitutionally invades the coalition states' power over their voter rolls.
Attempts to charge the states and the postal service with compiling mail voter eligibility lists and ban the postal service from sending mail ballots from the voters not on those lists, which is unconstitutional and runs headlong into states' and Congress' authority to regulate elections and Congress' power to regulate the postal service.
Threatens serious injury to the coalition states, including harms to the states' sovereign powers to administer their elections, fiscal injuries from states being forced to administer elections under the federal government's new procedures, legal jeopardy to states and their elections officials resulting from the executive order's directives to investigate and prosecute those who issue ballots to individuals purportedly ineligible to vote in a federal election, and harms to states' reputations and public trust.

"President Trump does not have the authority to make or alter laws governing federal elections," Raoul said. "The law is clear that states like Illinois have authority to regulate the time, place and manner of federal elections. This is why my colleagues and I are asking the court to permanently block this unlawful executive order. I will continue to fight to protect the fundamental right to vote for all Americans."