100 days in, Trump's moves to overhaul election law get pushback from courts, Democrats

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s push to prioritize what he calls “election integrity” is grounded in his continued unfounded contention that he was cheated out of reelection in 2020.

Speaking at a National Republican Congressional Committee dinner on April 8, about five months after winning the 2024 presidential election, it was clear the issue was still on his mind.

“It’s been a brilliant period of years. And we go back to 2016. It was brilliant. Then they stole it from us by illegally rigging the election,” Trump said. “And we did great in that election, but we had to write it off.”

Since returning to office, Trump has taken multiple executive actions related to elections and campaign spending, with Democrats challenging his moves in court. Meanwhile, House Republicans have passed legislation to address one of his priorities: noncitizen voting.

On March 25, the president issued an executive order outlining new federal actions, including making available Social Security database information for states to verify voter eligibility and directing Attorney General Pamela Bondi to “take appropriate action” against states that “fail to comply with the list maintenance requirements of the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.”

The order also takes aim at the practice of counting mail ballots received after Election Day. Many states require that ballots only be postmarked by Election Day. But a fact sheet accompanying the order called on the attorney general to “take appropriate action against states that count ballots received after Election Day in Federal elections. Federal election funding will be conditioned on compliance.”

But as with many of the president’s moves, federal court challenges and constitutional questions abound. On April 25, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., put on hold key provisions of Trump’s order, including a directive to the Election Assistance Commission to make changes to the national mail voter registration form to require proof of citizenship.

“The President is free to state his views about what policies he believes that Congress, the EAC, or other federal agencies should consider or adopt,” Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote. “But, in this case, the President has done much more than state his views: He has issued an ‘Order’ directing that an independent commission ‘shall’ act to ‘require’ changes to an important document, the contents of which Congress has tightly regulated.”

Kollar-Kotelly, however, did not block the entire order, leaving to stand provisions such as the directive to Bondi to combat suspected electoral crimes.

“Democrats fought back using every tool at our disposal – including taking Trump to court – to stop this illegal overreach that would have disenfranchised voters. Our work is not over – we will continue fighting to block [the Department of Government Efficiency] from accessing sensitive voter information and ensure states can freely run their own elections,” Democratic leaders said in a joint statement.

Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, now the chair of the Rules and Administration Committee, responded to the executive order with a Wall Street Journal op-ed, recalling that he had authored the 2002 legislation known as the Help America Vote Act alongside then-Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn.

The Kentucky Republican warned that a future Democratic president could use similar directives to undermine voter identification laws.

“Elections may have national consequences but the power to conduct them rests in state capitols. No public mandate, real or perceived, lets Washington tamper with this authority, not even for a worthy cause like election integrity,” McConnell wrote.

ActBlue

Trump issued a memorandum on April 24 directing the Department of Justice to investigate online political fundraising platforms for potentially allowing straw donor schemes, in which people funnel money through third parties to exceed contribution limits or make illegal donations from foreign sources.

As a White House fact sheet makes clear, the target was the billion-dollar fundraising juggernaut for liberal candidates, ActBlue.

In referencing a report from the GOP majority of three House committees, the White House said that in a one-month period, there were “hundreds of ActBlue donations from foreign IP addresses using prepaid cards, despite it being illegal for foreign nationals to contribute to U.S. elections.”

But Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called the memo “the kind of edict you’d expect from a power-mad dictator in a Banana Republic.”

“This president, with his approval ratings underwater and sinking like a stone, is desperately seeking to undermine his political opposition by cutting off their access to funding,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Congress

While the executive branch has limited authority, Congress has broad powers under the Elections Clause of the Constitution to set regulations, including to supersede state legislatures.

On the legislative front, the GOP-controlled House on April 10 acted on a signature voting-related Trump policy, passing a bill that would require people to prove they are citizens in order to register to vote. The measure known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE, Act passed 220-208, with four Democrats joining Republicans in favor.

“In order to preserve this republic, we must uphold what it means to be able to vote in a U.S. election. I am grateful that my colleagues answered the call and passed the SAVE Act, as this serves as a critical first step to ensure that we maintain election integrity throughout our country,” Texas Republican Chip Roy, the bill sponsor, said in a statement.

Democrats largely argued against the bill, saying the specific voter ID requirements could disadvantage certain groups – including married women – whose identification details may vary because of legal name changes.

“There’s no doubt that women, military members, and people of color will be disproportionately impacted,” House Administration ranking member Joseph D. Morelle, D-N.Y., said in a statement after the bill passed. “I will do everything in my power to ensure every eligible American has access to the ballot box.”

The legislation’s prospects in the Senate are dim, with Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer pledging to block the measure.

“Let me be clear, under my Leadership Senate Democrats will make sure this power grab does not pass the Senate,” the New York senator said in a statement.