Attorney General Josh Kaul (WRN file image)
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul on Friday joined a coalition of 22 other states and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order which attempts to exert federal control over voter rolls and mail-in ballots.
“This is fundamentally contrary to the way our constitution is set up,” Kaul said “It puts voters’ rights at risk, and it would ultimately undermine our democracy. “This is the president trying to issue a decree that effectively tells states how to run their elections. And an executive order is not a royal decree.”
Kaul said he expects a court to issue a decision on the legal challenge relatively soon. “We’re now just months away from the August primary. The November midterm election is not long after that. And there’s no plausible way that this could be effectively set up, this kind of system the president has talked about, in a way that didn’t significantly impact the rights of voters between now and then.”
Trump’s order requires the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate with the Social Security Administration in creating lists of voting-age U.S. citizens in each state and transmitting them to state elections officials at least 60 days prior to an election. The U.S. Postal Service would then oversee mail-in ballots. Kaul says all that flies in the face of the Constitution, which empowers the states to oversee elections.