Arizona joined 18 other states to sue the Trump administration over a wide-ranging executive order that would overhaul the country’s election systems.
The order, signed by President Donald Trump on March 25, seeks to make a host of changes to the way elections are run throughout the country, including requiring documented proof of citizenship to register to vote. Trump also directed the Election Assistance Commission to cut off federal financial assistance to states that don’t comply with the order.
Mayes signed on to a legal challenge alongside other Democratic attorneys general, claiming Trump exceeded his authority as president in issuing the order, because the Constitution gives the power to regulate elections to the states and, in some cases, Congress.
“But nowhere, absolutely nowhere, does the Constitution give the president or the executive branch any independent power to modify the state's procedures for conducting federal elections,” Mayes said.
Congress is currently considering a piece of legislation dubbed the SAVE Act, which would codify the proof of citizenship requirement in federal law, though it is unclear if the legislation has the votes to pass.
Arizona law already requires proof to register to vote but a federal court ruled the requirement did not apply to federal elections, like elections for the U.S. Senate or the presidency, because federal law only requires a person to attest to their citizenship on a registration form.
Trump's order would still affect Arizona voters, though, because it limits the kinds of documentation they can use to prove their citizenship. For instance, Trump’s order does not allow for the use of birth certificates or tribal IDs, which are allowable under Arizona law.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said that could put a particular burden on Native Americans living in rural areas, who may not have access to other forms of identification.
“We know how to maintain these voter rolls,” Fontes said. “Now, all of a sudden apparently, the president of the United States doesn't understand how these things work and how these, our first Americans, are going to be just dismissed out of hand if they don't have exactly the kind of requirements that other people will have.”
A separate requirement that states not accept absentee ballots received after Election Day could also disenfranchise some Arizona voters, Mayes argued.
Arizona law already requires mail-in ballots to be received by election officials by 7 p.m. on Election Day, but the state does allow election officials up to five days after an election to cure, or verify, signatures on ballots — something Mayes said could be banned by Trump’s order.
“As you know, we have very close elections in Arizona, I'm probably the poster child for that, and Arizonans want to be able to cure their ballots after Election Day,” said Mayes, who won her most recent election by less than 300 votes in 2022.
Trump’s executive order also includes broad information-sharing requirements among federal agencies and state election officials in an attempt to root out non-citizens who are allegedly on state voter rolls.
That includes provisions tasking Elon Musk’s DOGE — which is not actually a federal agency — to work with the Department of Homeland Security to cross-reference state voter lists and federal immigration databases.
Because each state operates its own election systems — and hundreds of counties within those states have their own systems — facilitating that information-sharing is a huge task that requires money and manpower, the lawsuit argues.
“Such sweeping changes to interconnected databases are a huge undertaking; they require time, money, and significant people power,” according to the lawsuit.
And Fontes argued it would put voter information at risk.
“I can tell you right now I don't want Elon Musk and his crew of incompetents taking those voter rolls away from our office,” Fontes said. “Arizona's voter information needs to be protected.”
Trump, who has long spread unsubstantiated claims about widespread voter fraud, said the order is needed to ensure the security of the country’s election systems.
“Despite pioneering self-government, the United States now fails to enforce basic and necessary election protections employed by modern, developed nations, as well as those still developing,” according to the executive order.
However, research has consistently shown that, while isolated instances of voter fraud do occur in the U.S., it is rare.
And Fontes argued that, if implemented, Trump’s executive order would actually decrease election security, not improve it.
“Consolidating these information, consolidating these systems into one makes them, by very definition, weaker. It is the very nature of our decentralized elections in this country that is a strength against foreign interference,” he said.
The lawsuit, filed in a Massachusetts federal court, asks a judge to declare the order unconstitutional and block its implementation.
