Trump Points Absurd Toothless Government Order On Elections

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Donald Trump likes to difficulty government orders that don’t have any authorized authority. The president has by no means understood the distinction between government orders and legal guidelines and that was by no means made extra clear by Trump’s newest government order that requires proof of citizenship to make use of the federal registration type, insists that no ballots may be counted after election day, and threatens states that don’t comply along with his order with a lack of federal funds.

Essentially the most absurd a part of the order is in part 7 the place Trump claims to have enforcement powers:

To realize full compliance with the Federal legal guidelines that set the uniform day for appointing Presidential electors and electing members of Congress:

(a) The Legal professional Normal shall take all mandatory motion to implement 2 U.S.C. 7 and three U.S.C. 1 towards States that violate these provisions by together with absentee or mail-in ballots obtained after Election Day within the last tabulation of votes for the appointment of Presidential electors and the election of members of the USA Senate and Home of Representatives.

(b) According to 52 U.S.C. 21001(b) and different relevant legislation, the Election Help Fee shall situation any obtainable funding to a State on that State’s compliance with the requirement in 52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(6) that every State undertake uniform and nondiscriminatory requirements inside that State that outline what constitutes a vote and what will likely be counted as a vote, together with that, as prescribed in 2 U.S.C. 7 and three U.S.C. 1, there be a uniform and nondiscriminatory poll receipt deadline of Election Day for all strategies of voting, excluding ballots solid in accordance with 52 U.S.C. 20301 et seq., after which no further votes could also be solid.

Sec. 8. Stopping International Interference and Illegal Use of Federal Funds. The Legal professional Normal, in session with the Secretary of the Treasury, shall prioritize enforcement of 52 U.S.C. 30121 and different applicable legal guidelines to forestall international nationals from contributing or donating in United States elections. The Legal professional Normal shall likewise prioritize enforcement of 31 U.S.C. 1352, which prohibits lobbying by organizations or entities which have obtained any Federal funds.

As The Guardian put it, “Most of the provisions within the order are more likely to be shortly challenged and are legally suspect. The US structure explicitly offers states and Congress the authority to set the foundations for election and doesn’t authorize the president to take action.”

That may be a very restrained approach of claiming that this order is a giant pile of nonsense.