Latest news with #UnitedStatesElectionAssistanceCommission
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tazewell County clerk's office earns national award for election security work
The Tazewell County Clerk and Recorder of Deeds Office announced Wednesday it was recognized by the United States Election Assistance Commission for excellence in election administration. The EAC presented the county with a Clearinghouse Award, also known as a "Clearie," given annually to celebrate the work of election officials throughout the nation. The Clerk and Recorder of Deeds Office won its award for 'Security: Innovations and New Tools in Election Security and Technology,' for an initiative to remove the requirement that election judge badges display the judge's name. This move was made to add privacy security for volunteers who serve as election judges. Tazewell County is the first Illinois county to win a Clearinghouse Award in the program's nine-year history, according to John Ackerman, Tazewell County Clerk and Recorder of Deeds. Pekin news: Pekin nursing home fined $25,000 after resident wandered off for three days 'Our office is extremely proud to be recognized by the United States Election Assistance Commission, and as such Congress, for our administration of Tazewell County elections' Ackerman said in a release. 'We deeply value the approximately 500 election judges that serve the citizens of county each and every election. These volunteers serve a vital role in making sure our elections are safe, secure, and accurate. This was opportunity to for us to add a layer of safety and security to these positions.' The office also received an honorable mention in the 'I Voted Stickers: Creative and Original' category for their 2024 series celebrating Pekin's bicentennial and its affinity for marigolds. This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Tazewell County program wins 'clearie' from U.S. Election Assistance Commission
The Guardian
04-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Democratic attorneys general sue Trump over ‘illegal' voting order
A coalition of 19 Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Thursday, arguing that a recent executive order signed by the president that seeks to overhaul the nation's elections was 'unconstitutional, anti-democratic, and un-American'. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, challenges several provisions of the far-reaching executive order issued last week, including the proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration and new rules requiring all mail ballots be received by election day. The attorneys general accuse the president of overstepping his authority and allege that the order 'usurps the states' constitutional power and seeks to amend election law by fiat'. Among the defendants named in the lawsuit are Trump, the attorney general Pam Bondi and the United States Election Assistance Commission, an independent agency charged with helping to improve election administration and ensuring voting accessibility and security. The state attorneys general say they are asking a judge to declare the provisions 'unconstitutional and void'. 'The president's executive order has no legal justification and far exceeds the scope of his constitutional authority,' the California attorney general Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said during a press conference on Thursday afternoon. 'Let me be clear: Trump is acting like he's above the law. He isn't. He's violating the US constitution. He can't, which is why we're taking action.' The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the lawsuit, the attorneys general repeatedly cite the elections clause of the constitution, which says that states set the 'times, places and manner' of elections. The clause allows Congress to pass federal voting laws, which House Republicans are racing to do, but 'nowhere does the constitution provide the president, or the executive branch, with any independent power to modify the states' procedures for conducting federal elections', the attorneys general assert in the complaint. California was joined by the Democratic attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin. Aaron Ford, the Democratic attorney general of Nevada, said Trump's executive order was not only unconstitutional but 'unnecessary'. He said that all US states had a 'vested interest' in ensuring a fair election process. 'To insinuate otherwise and to seek to impose restrictions based on these insinuations, is political gamesmanship. Frankly, it's illegal political gamesmanship,' Ford said during the press conference with Bonta. 'Blackmailing states with the removal of election security funding unless we comply with the order is a far more damaging and harmful threat than any perceived dangers the president is peddling falsehoods over.' Trump's elections order, described by White House staff secretary Will Scharf as 'the farthest-reaching executive action taken' in the nation's history, also faces legal challenges brought by the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Governors Association, and Senate and House Democratic leaders, as well as a separate lawsuit filed by two nonprofit organizations, the Campaign Legal Center and the State Democracy Defenders Fund. These lawsuits were filed in the US district court for the District of Columbia. Trump, a prolific spreader of election falsehoods who sought to overturn his 2020 defeat on the baseless claim of a stolen election, has said the order is necessary to protect US elections against illegal non-citizen voting. Instances of noncitizens casting ballots in federal elections – a felony crime – are exceedingly rare. Yet Trump and Republicans have continued to amplify the myth. Trump's order stated that the US had failed 'to enforce basic and necessary election protection', despite reports by elections officials that the recent elections have been among the most secure in US history. 'The president seemingly had no qualms with the result of the last election and happily took office for a second term,' Bonta said. 'That's because our elections are secure.'
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's executive order on elections is a blatant power grab
By design, presidents have no power over the conduct of federal elections. President Donald Trump's recent executive order on election administration aims to flip that, trying to take power from both an independent bipartisan federal agency and from the states, in an affront to principles of federalism. This dangerous power grab signals further democratic backsliding. Most other democracies such as Canada or Australia have a national body that administers national elections. The United States, on the other hand, leaves the administration of federal elections to states and counties, with additional rules imposed by Congress under its constitutional power to regulate congressional elections. After the disputed 2000 election, Congress used those powers to pass the Help America Vote Act which, among other things, established the United States Election Assistance Commission: a federal agency that approves voting technologies eligible for federal subsidies and advises states and counties on best practices. The EAC is described as 'independent' in the congressional statute; it has four members, no more than two from any single political party, and it takes three commissioners to approve anything. The design is meant to be bipartisan and independent of political branches, insulating the agency from some politics. Trump's executive order tries to turn that around. It purports to direct the EAC to do certain things such as require documentary proof of citizenship on a form that the federal government provides to allow people to register to vote anywhere in the United States for federal elections. Requiring documentary proof of citizenship to be allowed to register to vote is currently under debate both in Congress and in the states (Arizona has such rules, though they are tied up in litigation). Whether a documentary requirement is a good idea — and I think it is a bad idea, because it could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters and prevent only a tiny amount of fraud — the issue is up to the states and Congress, not to the president. It's dangerous to put such power in the hands of the president, who could attempt to manipulate election rules to favor his party and his self-interest. And it seems especially dangerous to take power away from the states when there are many threats to our democracy. Republicans seemed to understand this point in the past. When Joe Biden was president, he issued his own executive order on voting. The order was a mild one, asking federal agencies to promote voter access and voter registration. Yet Republicans were outraged. Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, the chair of the House Administration Committee, issued a press release calling the order 'another attempt by the Biden Administration to tilt the scales ahead of 2024.' Then-West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner dismissed the order as 'federal overreach.' If that order was an overreach, what Trump is trying to do now risks dislocating his proverbial arm from its socket. Not only does the executive order try to direct the independent EAC to take certain action, it also directs the attorney general to sue states that accept and count ballots that are mailed before Election Day but arrive after that day. And it purports to give the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Government Efficiency the power to subpoena voter registration records from states in a silly hunt for elusive voter fraud. In the first Trump administration, an advisory commission on 'election integrity' chaired by Vice President Mike Pence tried to go after similar voting records. Pence and the commission got pushback from both Democrats and Republicans. One GOP official who refused to hand over such records was Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann. 'As all of you may remember, I fought in federal court to protect Mississippi voters' rights for their privacy and won,' he said in 2017. 'In the event I were to receive correspondence from the commission requesting (what the other state received) ... My reply would be: They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi is a great state to launch from.' I hope Republican officials have a similar response this time around — minus the reference to the 'Gulf of Mexico' of course. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Program engages young talent to enhance election process
HARTFORD — The Connecticut Secretary of State, Stephanie Thomas, said the Next Gen Elections Program to the United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC) has proven to be a successful model for engaging young people in the democratic process.
