The GOP is making Biden's voter registration executive order a partisan flash point
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
As fall's election gets closer, Republicans are ramping up attacks on one of President Biden's executive orders. It was issued three years ago to try to get more eligible voters signed up to vote, but the GOP is now making it a partisan flashpoint. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang reports.
HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE: When it comes to registering voters, the federal government has long had a role. It's spelled out in laws that you may not know well.
DAN TOKAJI: It's really just election nerds like me who pay a lot of attention to these laws.
WANG: But Dan Tokaji, the dean the University of Wisconsin Law School, says there's the National Voter Registration Act, or the NVRA to election nerds, and President Biden's executive order builds on it.
TOKAJI: It's kind of a nudge to federal agencies, encouraging them to cooperate with states in registering voters.
WANG: Under the NVRA, states have to cooperate with local recruitment offices for the U.S. military, which are required to distribute voter registration forms, help people fill them out and hand those forms to state election officials. States can choose to partner with other federal agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Small Business Administration.
TOKAJI: But there was no real fire under them to do that.
WANG: Since Biden's order, though, Kentucky and Michigan have announced that VA facilities in their states are now voter registration agencies. Michigan has also agreed to send state election officials to register eligible voters at SBA events. Tokaji says these are steps in the right direction.
TOKAJI: Until recently, the complaints were really the federal government wasn't doing enough.
WANG: Republicans in Congress, though, are arguing that now it's doing too much.
BRIAN STEIL: What they have done is work to weaponize all federal agencies on behalf of President Biden's reelection campaign.
ROGER WILLIAMS: The SBA has entangled itself in electioneering activities - not only lack a constitution basis for, but also betray the trust and purpose for which the agency was established.
WANG: That was representatives, Brian Steil of Wisconsin and Roger Williams of Texas, two of the most vocal GOP critics of Biden's order, which has sparked a congressional hearing, subpoenas and now a dismissed lawsuit. Republican officials have been claiming - with no substantial evidence - that the Biden administration is using the order to overstep its authority and rack up more democratic voters. But federal laws ban federal agencies from favoring one political party over another when promoting voter registration. And when states decide whether to partner with more federal offices as voter registration agencies...
JUSTIN LEVITT: States have to start the dance.
WANG: Justin Levitt is a professor at Loyola Law School and previously served as a White House official who helped carry out this voter registration order.
LEVITT: And some states have chosen to do that in order to make life a little bit more convenient for people seeking service from federal agencies.
WANG: What Biden's order has actually done so far - a few new partnerships between states and federal agencies, plus new voter registration guides, mailers and updated websites - has not fully satisfied the order's supporters.
LESLIE PROLL: I think all of the agencies could still do more to fulfill the letter and the spirit of the executive order.
WANG: Leslie Proll directs the Voting Rights Program at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, which has recommendations for federal agencies that it says could generate more than 3 million additional voter registration applications a year.
PROLL: With the tsunami of voter suppression unleashed 11 years ago when the Supreme Court Shelby County decision gutted the hearts of the Voting Rights Act, it has become much harder for voters of color to register and, frankly, to stay registered to vote.
WANG: Exactly how much of that voter registration gap Biden's order has helped close, though, is murky. The White House has said that a tribal university in Kansas and a tribal college in New Mexico - both operated by the Interior Department - are the first federal programs to be designated voter registration agencies after Biden's order. But when NPR asked how many completed registration forms the schools have collected, the Interior Department did not provide any numbers. Hansi Lo Wang, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF RINI SONG, "SELFISH (FEAT. BEAM)")
Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.