Alamogordo NM
4-07-2025 10:41pm

New Mexico Joins Multistate Lawsuit Over Unlawful Executive Order Seeking to Impose Sweeping Voting Restrictions

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez joined a coalition of 19 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against President Donald J. Trump, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, the federal Election Assistance Commission, and other Trump Administration officials over Executive Order No. 14248 (the Elections Executive Order), an unconstitutional, antidemocratic, and un-American attempt to impose sweeping voting restrictions across the country. Among other things, the Elections Executive Order attempts to conscript State election officials in the President’s campaign to impose documentary proof of citizenship requirements when Americans seek to register to vote. It also seeks to upend common-sense, well-established State procedures for counting ballots — procedures that make it easier for peoples’ voices to be heard.

The President has no constitutional power to rewrite State election laws by decree, nor does the President have the authority to modify the rules Congress has created for elections. The coalition’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, explains that the power to regulate elections is reserved to the States and Congress, and that therefore, the Elections Executive Order is ultra vires, beyond the scope of presidential power, and violative of the separation of powers. The attorneys general ask the court to block the challenged provisions of the Elections Executive Order and declare them unconstitutional and void.

“This executive order is an unconstitutional power grab that threatens the very foundation of our democracy,” said Attorney General Torrez. “The President has no authority to rewrite state election laws or impose arbitrary barriers to voting. New Mexico will not stand by while the federal government oversteps its bounds and undermines the right of every eligible voter to have their voice heard. We are taking this fight to court to protect the integrity of our elections and defend the fundamental principles of our democracy.”

“This unconstitutional executive order is blatant overreach by the federal government into our country’s decentralized system of voting that would weaken our elections and make it harder for eligible voters to make their voices heard,” said New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, the state’s chief elections officer. “I thank the New Mexico Department of Justice and Attorney General Torrez for joining this important lawsuit. My office will support this effort in any way we can as our state’s election administrators continue their work every day providing New Mexicans with the nation’s top-ranked elections.”

In their lawsuit, the attorneys general assert that provisions of the Elections Executive Order will cause imminent and irreparable harm to the States if they are not enjoined. The challenged provisions include:

  • Commanding the head of each state-designated Federal voter registration agency to immediately begin “assess[ing] citizenship prior to providing a federal voter registration form to enrollees of public assistance programs.” This aspect of the Elections Executive Order commandeers State agencies and their personnel, forcing States to participate in the President’s unlawful and unnecessary agenda.
  • Forcing States to alter their ballot counting laws to exclude “absentee or mail-in ballots received after Election Day.” Consistent with federal law, members of the multistate coalition have exercised their constitutional and statutory authority to determine how to best receive and count votes that are timely cast by mail in federal elections. Many of the Plaintiff States provide for the counting of timely absentee and mail ballots received after Election Day.
  • Requiring military and overseas voters to submit documentary proof of citizenship and eligibility to vote in state elections. The Federal Post Card Application form is used by voters in the military or living abroad to register to vote in federal elections. Federal law unequivocally grants them the ability to register and cast a ballot “in the last place in which the person was domiciled before leaving the United States” — there is no requirement that this form demand documentary proof of citizenship or proof of current eligibility to vote in a particular state.
  • Threatening to withhold various streams of federal funding to the States for purported noncompliance with the challenged provisions. In so doing, the Elections Executive Order seeks to control Plaintiff States’ exercise of their sovereign powers through raw Executive domination, contrary to the U.S. Constitution and its underlying principles of federalism and the separation of powers.

In filing this lawsuit, Attorney General Torrez joins the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin. The litigation was led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford.

Elections EO – Complaint – As Filed

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