Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Thursday denounced President Trump’s latest government order to make voting guidelines extra strict, saying it’s an unlawful energy seize that can shortly be rejected by the courts.
“The executive order that was recently issued by President Trump is not worth the paper it has been written on,” Jeffries instructed reporters within the Capitol. “It will be challenged in court, and it will be invalidated.”
Trump on Tuesday signed an government order designed to overtake how elections are performed throughout the nation. Central to the decree is a brand new proof-of-citizenship mandate, forcing states to require potential voters to indicate passports, drivers licenses or different types of authorities ID so as to register.
Underneath present federal regulation, potential voters should swear an oath that they’re residents to realize registration, however not produce an ID. Violators can face costs of perjury.
Trump and his GOP allies have solid the more durable guidelines as a commonsense change that’s crucial in removing voter fraud, which the president and plenty of Republicans have claimed was the one motive for former President Biden’s victory over Trump in 2020.
They’ve produced no proof to again that allegation, nonetheless, and the courts dismissed greater than 60 lawsuits difficult Biden’s win.
Democrats have opposed the stricter voting guidelines, noting that circumstances of voter fraud are exceedingly uncommon within the U.S. With that in thoughts, they are saying Trump’s government order has a extra sinister objective: to discourage voting by low-income individuals who are inclined to vote Democratic and are least prone to have up-to-date authorities IDs.
Jeffries on Thursday mentioned Republicans have “zero credibility” with regards to safeguarding elections and defending democracy. Fairly apart from Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election primarily based on false claims of fraud, Jeffries additionally pointed to the GOP’s latest effort to redraw the congressional map in North Carolina.
The Tar Heel State is cut up roughly 50/50 between the events, and it lately elected a Democratic governor and lawyer basic. However Republican gerrymandering closely favors the GOP within the U.S. Home, the place the state’s delegation was evenly divided within the final Congress — seven Republicans and 7 Democrats — however now leans closely in direction of Republicans, 10 to 4, below the brand new map.
“Republicans have actually concluded that voter suppression is an electoral strategy,” Jeffries charged. “These individuals within the Home would not even be within the majority proper now if it weren’t for the egregious, mid-decade, extremely partisan gerrymandering that came about in North Carolina. Take into consideration that. They might not even be within the majority proper now, however then they’re operating across the nation claiming to have a mandate.
“Give me a break.”
