Mississippi sues Biden Administration over Voter Registration Order

Aug 13, 2024 – Gov. Tate Reeves, Attorney General Lynn Fitch, and Secretary of State Michael Watson filed a complaint on behalf of the State of Mississippi challenging an illegal Executive Order directing an all-of-government voter registration effort by federal agencies and led by the White House. 

“This executive order is a prime example as to why the Biden-Harris administration has been such a disaster,” said Gov. Tate Reeves. “They’re focused on everything except doing their job, and Americans are paying the price. Federal agencies should be prioritizing their core duties, not acting as an extension of the Democratic National Committee. It really goes to show just how far the Biden-Harris administration will go to expand their power, and it’s why Mississippi will continue pushing back when they violate the law.”

“We fully support encouraging voter registration and promoting an engaged electorate,” said Attorney General Lynn Fitch. “But putting the full weight of the Oval Office behind an effort first developed by partisan activist groups and then hiding the agency activities from public scrutiny goes too far. The law does not allow it. Mississippi will not stand for it. The people deserve answers, and we demand accountability here with this suit.”

“From the day this unlawful Executive Order (EO 14019) was signed, my team and I had hoped it was another Biden Administration word salad with no action. Unfortunately, that was not the case. In 2022, several Secretaries of State and I sent a letter to the Administration asking them to stand down. Our office has since dug in to study the EO’s implementation and sent FOIA requests to ensure we had enough facts to file suit ending this absurd EO. Thankfully, this day has come! We look forward to continuing to push as hard as we can to stop the use of taxpayer dollars for illicit means,” said Secretary of State Michael Watson.

Executive Order 14019 mobilized federal agencies to develop strategies to expand voter registration efforts and to submit their strategic plans to the White House within 200 days. Those plans, however, did not go through notice and comment or any of the safeguards under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) that ensure transparency and accountability. 

In fact, efforts by watchdog organizations and others to obtain copies of those plans were stonewalled, with the U.S. Department of Justice even asserting that they should be “properly withheld … in [their] entirety pursuant to the presidential communications privilege,” in a case brought in federal court in Florida by the Foundation for Government Accountability. Secretary Watson, who filed Freedom of Information Act requests with several federal agencies, was told on a call between Secretaries of State and the White House that those plans were never intended to be public.

The complaint filed today by Mississippi and 8 other States notes, “the partisan infection is so severe as to render EO 14019, and the agency decisions stemming from it, the product of pretext. That is, rather than ensure ‘that registering to vote and the act of voting be made simple and easy for all those eligible to do so,’ or promoting or defending ‘the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections,’ … the purpose is to promote left-wing politicians and policies at elections. If there are ‘contrived reasons’ instead of ‘genuine justifications for important decisions,’ agency action must be set aside.” (citing Dep’t of Commerce v. New York, 588 U.S. 752, 785 (2019)).

The complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. In addition to Mississippi, the complaint was joined by Montana, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and South Dakota.

Gov. Reeves, Attorney General Fitch, and Secretary Watson are the three members of the State Board of Election Commissioners and work together to enforce Mississippi’s election laws. The Secretary of State, as Chief Election Official, administers electoral procedures as well.