Maine has joined a coalition of states challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order attempting to impose sweeping voting restrictions.
The 42-page lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in Massachusetts.
In announcing the lawsuit, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey called Trump’s March 25 executive order “unconstitutional, antidemocratic, and un-American.”
That order cast doubt on the “integrity” of U.S. elections and threatens to withhold federal funds from states that don’t comply with provisions to purge ineligible voters, including allegedly noncitizens, from voting rolls.
Beyond that, the order would force states to require voters to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote and to not count absentee ballots mailed before but not received until after Election Day, which Trump likened to allowing someone to enter a polling place three days after an election to cast a vote.
Under Article I, Section IV, of the U.S. Constitution, the states set the time, place and manner of holding elections.
The lawsuit accuses Trump of exceeding his authority and violating the separation of powers, saying that the president cannot rewrite state election rules by decree or modify those rules passed by Congress.
“The right to vote is a cornerstone of our free society and the President is acting without any authority by trying to dictate election law,” Attorney General Frey said in a statement. “If the President and his administration have their way, Mainers will have a harder time casting their ballot.”
In the lawsuit, Maine joins the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.
