On Tuesday President Trump signed a sweeping executive order claiming authority over elections that the Constitution clearly grants to Congress and the states. This would alter our country’s highly secure and decentralized system of voting and threaten to disenfranchise millions of voters. Mormon Women for Ethical Government believes political structures and electoral systems should be designed to maximize participation of and provide equitable access to all citizens in a society, and we are concerned that this executive order could negatively impact both our electoral systems and voter access.
As outlined in the Constitution, each state administers elections under the direction of Congress and according to its own regulations and processes. This decentralization has long been a major safeguard against interference in federal elections. This executive order is an excessive and unfunded mandate that attempts to fracture our longstanding system, pulling power away from the states and infringing upon their rights to formulate their own systems and election laws.
It also could result in the disenfranchisement of millions of voters. ID requirements demonstrating proof of citizenship can be costly, and they have an outsize impact on lower-income citizens, married women who have changed their names, and those in rural areas. Restrictions on absentee eligibility and the requirement that mail-in ballots be received by Election Day would negatively impact hourly wage earners, students, missionaries, and military families. Essentially, this order would harm all those who do not have the capacity, time, transportation, or financial means to purchase an ID or vote in person.
In the United States, elections are the source of political power and, as such, every American citizen deserves to have access to the polls and confidence in the integrity of elections. We believe this executive order is an unconstitutional attempt to aggregate power in the hands of the president, and it risks compromising voter access and citizen confidence in elections systems.