Trump election order is the latest target for Washington AG Brown

The state has now filed 11 lawsuits against the Trump administration, including four this week.

By: Jake Goldstein-Street, Washington State Standard

The Washington and Oregon attorneys general sued the Trump administration Friday over its executive order on elections that seeks to withhold funding unless states comply with dramatic rule changes.

President Donald Trump’s sweeping order, signed March 25, looks to uproot voter registration and mail-in voting rules under the auspices of eradicating election fraud. Notably for Washington and Oregon, the order seeks to prevent states from counting ballots received after Election Day. “The order makes it harder to vote, erodes public confidence in our elections and makes it more expensive for states to administer our systems,” Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said, “and most alarming, it would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Washington residents.”

The order tells the bipartisan and independent Election Assistance Commission to require documentation of U.S. citizenship, like a passport or enhanced driver’s license, as a prerequisite to registering to vote in federal elections. Over 9% of American citizens of voting age don’t have proof of citizenship readily available, according to a report from the Brennan Center for Justice. Americans of color are more likely than white citizens to lack on-hand citizenship documents.

Washington state law mandates that people attest to their citizenship to register to vote. Statute also requires state and local election officials to regularly review voter rolls to identify people not eligible to vote. Washington is one of 18 states to count mail ballots as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. In the 2024 general election, for example, election officials received nearly 120,000 valid ballots after Election Day that were postmarked on time. In the primary last year, officials accepted 151,000. “This is like allowing persons who arrive 3 days after Election Day, perhaps after a winner has been declared, to vote in person at a former voting precinct, which would be absurd,” Trump’s order contends. This could also impact ballots returned to drop boxes on time, but not immediately retrieved. Other states only accept votes they receive by Election Day.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Department of Government Efficiency would review state voter rolls to ensure they’re consistent with the new federal requirements. In a press conference, Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs called the idea for the review “foolhardy and ridiculous.” The order directs the Election Assistance Commission to condition federal funding on states complying with these new demands. States that don’t comply could also face action from the U.S. attorney general.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, argues Trump’s order violates the U.S. Constitution, which says states will decide election mechanics, and unconstitutionally infringes on the right to vote. “The president has no authority to set rules for how states conduct their elections,” said Brown. “Democrats and Republicans in our state have worked together to protect and expand participation in our democracy, and Washington has a robust, safe and secure, voting system.”

The amount of money the state receives from the commission has varied widely year-to-year. Last year, Washington got $1 million, the lowest in six years, according to the secretary of state’s office. The order isn’t clear on whether the administration could also withhold other funding. Washington’s lawsuit is one of several to challenge the president’s order.

On Monday, top Democratic organizations and leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, filed suit. And on Thursday, 19 other Democratic-led states brought a separate lawsuit over the order in federal court in Massachusetts.Unlike other cases Washington has brought, the attorney general is not asking for a judge to temporarily block Trump’s election order. “Temporary restraining orders need to be brought where there’s an emergency impact,” Brown said. “Because we don’t have an election pending in the short term, we did not feel like a TRO was necessary.”

Friday’s lawsuit sets the stage for yet another showdown between Washington and the president. Brown has now filed 11 lawsuits against the Trump administration since the president’s second term began in January. It is also the fourth this week, including a lawsuit filed Tuesday against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over billions in canceled federal health funding. A judge on Thursday agreed to temporarily block the administration from terminating the grant funding.

On Friday, Brown also was one of the leaders of a new 16-state lawsuit against the Trump administration over disruptions to grant funding from the National Institutes of Health. And Brown said the state was joining yet another case with 20 other states to protect small federal agencies focused on museums, libraries, minority-owned businesses and more. Trump has proposed dismantling them.

“I’m sorry to say, at this rate it is headed, we will have more cases in the future,” he said. Ballot envelopes sit in the Thurston County elections center.