Skeptics will try to tamp down fears by saying the EAC is toothless, and on the surface they have a point. The commission can’t compel states to do anything, necessarily. It certifies voting machines, distributes election security grants, and publishes best practices. Hell, it even sat without a quorum for years during the Obama administration, and elections happened anyway.
Yet even though I’ve described it that way myself, “toothless” misses a key element that I think the White House is considering homing in on. The EAC holds one power that matters enormously right now. It controls the federal voter registration form.
That should set off alarm bells. Under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (what experts call the “Motor Voter” law), there’s a single federal mail-in registration form that nearly every state is required to accept. The EAC maintains that form. Back in 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that states can’t unilaterally bolt new requirements onto that form, like a documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement, without the EAC’s permission. Which means whoever controls the EAC controls whether new requirements get added. . . .
. . . . the plaintiffs are ready. I suspect lawsuits are being drafted as I write this. Some of the same groups we’ve funded at DEFIANCE to help sue the Trump administration over unconstitutional conduct are probably preparing legal briefs this very morning. I know state attorneys general are gearing up, too. When I say that we’re better prepared for these types of anti-democratic shenanigans than we were the last time, this is what I mean.
Trump may think he found a Trojan horse. What he actually found is a trap of his own making. Every action he tries to take to abuse the EAC will be met with resistance and tie him up in litigation as the clock ticks to November. The president’s corruption may be brazen, but it’s also sloppy and short-sighted. And we’re going to keep fighting it in the courts, in the states, and in the open, where schemes like this one go to die.
https://www.defiance.news/p/trump-thinks-he-found-a-trojan-horse
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