MONTPELIER Vt. — Vermont officials are gearing up to challenge a presidential executive order governing election law that they say is unconstitutional and violates state law.
Per the Executive Order issued Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security would use citizenship and naturalization records, Social Security data, Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, data and other federal data to compile a list of U.S. citizens who will be 18 by the date of a federal election. The U.S. Postal Service could only distribute mail-in ballots to people on the list.
“President Trump’s latest executive order on mail-in voting is just plain unconstitutional,” Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark said in an Instagram video Wednesday. “The Constitution is clear that states are given the power to run elections, not the president and any changes to federal law must be made by Congress, not the president.”
The Attorney General’s Office “had long anticipated that he would attempt to take this plainly unconstitutional action, and we have been coordinating with a multi-state coalition of attorneys general as well as the Vermont Secretary of State’s office to prepare for this eventuality,” Senior Advisor to the Attorney General Amelia Vath said in a Thursday statement.
The Vermont League of Women Voters also condemned the order in a Thursday statement as “a direct attack not only on voters, but on how elections are run in this country.”
In an interview, Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas said she does not plan to change Vermont election procedures to adhere to Trump’s order and will work with Clark to fight it.
In general, any presidential order attempting to govern election law is unconstitutional, Copeland Hanzas said. The Constitution stipulates that election laws and procedures are governed by state legislators and Congress.
In January, a federal judge blocked a previous executive order attempting to govern election law and withhold federal funds from states that don’t comply.
Because every state maintains its own election rules and procedures, Copeland Hanzas said she also doubts that the federal government could adapt the system to state rules.
“We could be disenfranchising thousands, if not tens of thousands of Vermonters because of the inability of their system to be able to comply with state law,” she said.
She also doubts that the federal government has accurate and up-to-date data on residents’ legal status.
“I have zero faith that the Department of Homeland Security knows which Vermonters are citizens,” Copeland Hanzas said.
She referenced a recent issue when SAVE data was used to inaccurately flag eligible voters in Texas, particularly naturalized citizens, as non-citizens and they were notified that they may not be able to vote.
Even if the system could accurately identify citizens, Copeland Hanzas said there are many Vermont residents who registered to vote years ago without the documentation that is now required.
“We can’t disenfranchise someone because at the time that they registered we didn’t require they give us their Social Security or driver’s license numbers, that’s ridiculous,” Copeland Hanzas said.
The executive order would also require Vermont to share its full voting checklist with the federal government including personally identifying information, which violates state law, she added.
The federal government is currently suing Vermont after Copeland Hanzas refused to turn over the voting checklist last year.
The state also has procedures to ensure only eligible voters are participating in Vermont elections and increase turnout.
Anyone can request a mail-in ballot and ballots are automatically sent to registered voters in all general elections. This has increased voter turnout in several consecutive elections, Copeland Hanzas said.
Local election officials are required to go through voting checklists every two years and “challenge” and notify anyone who may have moved away or who hasn’t voted in a while. These voters are not automatically sent a general election ballot and can be taken off the voting roll if they don’t participate after two more general election cycles.
Vermont also uses the Electronic Registration Information Center which collects data from multiple states to flag when voters may have moved, died or registered to vote elsewhere.
“All of these laws are put in place very intentionally to make sure we are not on a whim disenfranchising somebody,” Copeland Hanzas said.
