Federal Agencies Lag in Implementing Biden Executive Order on Improving Voter Access

A coalition of organizations has issued a report that identified federal agencies as falling behind in implementing President Joe Biden’s executive order aimed at increasing voter access. One year after the executive order was signed, the coalition assessed the responses of ten federal agencies to the order, which called for increased access to voter registration services and information. Although some agencies have made progress, most of them are either performing minimally or failing to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the executive order. More concerning is that the potential of the executive order to increase voter registration could be undermined by politicization of the process.

The Department of the Interior, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Treasury are amongst the few agencies that have made significant progress, while the Indian Health Services, the Department of Education, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are lagging behind. The report states that integrating a high-quality voter registration opportunity could add 3.5 million applications per year across the federal agencies.

Concerns About Politicizing Federal Agencies

Biden’s executive order required federal agencies to help promote voter registration, including providing vote-by-mail applications, promoting prisoner registration, and using third-party organizations to register voters.

Political interests, however, could hamper the executive order, especially as concerns have been raised about its ability to provide increased voter access to criminals, and how it may lead to the politicization of federal agencies, which could undermine public trust in the electoral process.