15 Republican Secretaries of State Demand Biden Halt Election-Takeover Plans

Victoria MarshallAugust 4, 2022

Fifteen Republican secretaries of state submitted a letter to President Joe Biden Wednesday urging him to rescind Executive Order 14019.

As The Federalist has reported, EO 14019 is the Biden administration’s sinister attempt at federalizing elections. It directs all federal agencies to “expand citizens’ opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process.” Following the order, multiple agencies have laid out plans to transform their offices into voter registration agencies. These include the Department of Labor and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Such agencies are also allowed to work with left-wing get-out-the-vote groups.

While congressional Republicans have pushed the Office of Management and Budget for documents behind the EO, state officials have been quite lax in demanding answers or creating resistance. Thankfully, West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner spearheaded a letter with 14 other Republican secretaries of state calling on Biden to end his unconstitutional federal takeover of elections.

As the letter states, “the Constitution clearly says the state legislatures shall (emphasis added) prescribe the way elections are run, and that if any adjustments need to be made, such adjustments are the province of Congress, not the Executive branch.”

The letter stipulates that the EO robs states of their duties within the Constitution’s Election Clause, and as such, is unconstitutional: “Executive Order 14019 calls for federal agencies to develop plans that duplicate voter registration efforts conducted at the state level and ignores codified procedures and programs in our state constitutions and laws.”

Fourteen other Republican secretaries of state signed onto Warner’s letter, including John Merrill of Alabama, Cord Byrd of Florida, John Thurston of Arkansas, Brad Raffensberger of Georgia, Lawrence Denney of Idaho, Holli Sullivan of Indiana, Kyle Ardoin of Louisiana, Michael Watson of Mississippi, Christi Jacobsen of Montana, Bob Evnen of Nebraska, Frank LaRose of Ohio, Steve Barnette of South Dakota, Tre Hargett of Tennessee, and Ed Buchanan of Wyoming.

Center for Renewing America President Russell Vought and Foundation for Government Accountability President Tarren Bragdon’s advice for states resisting Biden’s EO is to order state agencies to ignore federal guidance on becoming voter registration agencies and “pass legislation barring state agencies from seeking to become” such agencies.

Victoria Marshall is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Hillsdale College in May 2021 with a major in politics and a minor in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @vemrshll.