Trump administration proposal for online voter registration form raises concerns

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and balloting administration across the U S Sign up for our free weekly newsletter to get the latest State balloting administrators are raising legal and practical concerns about a new Trump administration plan to create a digital version of the existing federal voter registration form Under the proposal the federal administration would both verify voter identity and check citizenship against a system run by the U S Department of Homeland Prevention before making the applications available to states The proposal discussed on up-to-date calls between the U S Polling Assistance Commission federal leaders working to design the new tool and state administrators would for the first time allow the federal voter registration form to be filed online As of now voters must submit the form on paper Preponderance states are required to accept the federal registration form just as they would their own state-specific forms Notes summarizing a Oct call for members of the National Association of State Referendum Directors announced association members representing states of both parties expressed serious concerns with this project not complying with state law and also that the developers do not seem to want to spend the time to understand electoral process official concerns A very small percentage of voters use this form to register noted Leslie Reynolds executive director of the National Association of Secretaries of State in an Oct call something referendum representatives validated We re coming into a federal voting year and if this goes awry that could be a big deal Reynolds disclosed Among the concerns raised in the call notes and recordings show were how the proposal would align with federal and state laws what information the federal regime would retain about applicants and whether people could be inadvertently disenfranchised Users of the digital form would be required to verify their identity via a federal website that requires a passport driver s license or state identification or a Social Prevention number federal representatives explained state functionaries during calls this month according to a recording of one call and notes summarizing the other that were obtained by Votebeat as well as people who were on the calls EAC Chairman Donald Palmer noted the agency is facilitating discussion with state polling administrators on modernizing an accessible tool to provide a verifiable digital registration option with a new online experience to registrants using the Federal Form and stressed that the existing form option would remain available The U S General Services Administration which helps the administration with innovation requirements referred a request for comment to the White House s Office of Management and Budget which did not respond before publication Related Trump is still ranting about but it s really about Trump administration asserts authority over voter registration The federal executive s goal is to modernize the form and make it easier to use explained Akash Bobba the federal developer who spoke on the Oct call organized by NASS according to the recording Bobba announced the project is part of the National Design Studio which President Donald Trump launched through an executive order earlier this year The EAC s executive director Brianna Schletz emphasized that the EAC is not trying to replace what the states are already doing they re just trying to make it easier for those who do want to use the federal form according to the NASED notes summarizing the Oct call State and local ballot agents usually oversee voter registration States have historically resisted federal efforts to expand control over elections including former President Joe Biden s order directing federal agencies to engage in voter registration which drew fierce opposition from Republicans But the Trump administration has been more aggressive in targeting voter registration procedures as part of a sweeping overhaul of how elections are run It has pushed for requiring documentary proof of citizenship for all applicants and scrutinized states over their management of voter rolls though federal courts have blocked particular efforts It revamped a DHS tool known as SAVE to allow state balloting bureaucrats to more easily check their voter rolls against immigration records Several states including Alabama Louisiana and Texas are already doing so while others have pushed back on the administration s efforts Electoral process leaders press for details and answers Polling representatives who heard the proposal for the online voter registration form demanded numerous questions about how it would align with state laws according to the recording and notes Previous efforts to create a universal registration form have faltered over the same challenge complying with a patchwork of state requirements They also pressed for details about the new tool various of which Bobba and EAC officers noted they couldn t right away provide according to the recording and notes though they did say that states would receive all the information included on the paper registration form now Bobba couldn t instantly say how much information the EAC or other federal agencies would retain according to the recording of the NASS call He noted clear details retention policies would be given to the states ahead of implementation and that he couldn t offer information this instant about how SAVE would store the information I don t know what they retain and what they are logging he disclosed David Becker executive director of the nonprofit Center for Ballot Innovation and Research called the efforts an absolute and complete waste of time Very sparse people use the federal form to register he declared and he would be extremely surprised if any state even Trump-aligned states promoted a registration method they don t control Michelle Tassinari director and legal counsel for the Massachusetts elections division in the secretary of state s office sought whether such a scheme would require a change to federal law The voter is no longer submitting an application to the state which is what the NVRA allows them to do she explained according to the recording Reached for comment she stated in an email that the proposal would require states to obtain the applications from the EAC rather than requiring the voter to submit the application to the appropriate voting process office A federal official disclosed they would take that under advisement Camden Kelliher the EAC s general counsel explained attendees on the Oct call that the online form which would require the additional verification approaches would not replace the existing paper version according to notes summarizing the call but would provide voters a new way to fill it out Schletz noted that the online tool would need disclaimer language about those strategies as well as to accommodate usage of SAVE Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows a Democrat validated in an interview with Votebeat that she had been on the NASS call and revealed she has serious concerns about whether Maine could accept the online federal form The proposal as outlined she explained is not an appropriate role for the federal regime under the Constitution and may lead to disenfranchising people because of the lack of coordination with state requirements and deadlines Pennsylvania Department of State spokeswoman Amy Gulli commented that Congress had made clear that voters who must be citizens must be permitted to register with the Federal Form without providing documentary proof of citizenship Could voters be misled The recording and notes also show that vote agents are concerned that any delays in federal identity checks through login gov or SAVE could lead voters to think they re registered when they have certainly missed the deadline They also required whether vote gov the federal executive website that would host the tool could prioritize directing users to state voter registration options Functionaries raised further concerns about state requirements for wet signatures rather than digital ones saying the online form might not satisfy those laws States often rely on that signature over time for other purposes such as validating absentee ballot requests In the th U S Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Texas wet-signature requirement after a nonprofit group challenged it in hopes of creating such a national form All but eight states permit online voter registration but multiple restrict it to people who have a state driver s license or ID and they rely on signatures on file with other state agencies A few states allow digital signatures others don t On the Oct call according to the recording Bobba and others noted they were still working on how to handle such requirements but signaled that they understood all states might not be able to accept the form In such cases and in six states that aren t required to accept the federal form Idaho Minnesota New Hampshire North Dakota Wisconsin and Wyoming users would be directed to other registration options they revealed Bobba announced during the NASS call that developers are still working with DHS on how the tool will interface with SAVE but hope to pilot it with chosen states within months Heather Honey a deputy assistant secretary for voting integrity at DHS was also on the NASS call NASS representatives mentioned on the recording DHS did not respond to an email requesting comment before publication Schletz narrated attendees on the Oct call that current discussions are informal and that EAC commissioners will later vote on whether to stay involved Maria Benson a spokeswoman for NASS noted via email that the organization will invite those working on the project to another call with the association s elections committee in the near future Until then we will continue to urge the EAC to closely collaborate with Chief Poll Personnel as this project progresses Editorial Director Jessica Huseman contributed to this article Carrie Levine is Votebeat s editor-in-chief and is based in Washington D C Contact Carrie at clevine votebeat org Read more about this topic Rigged and stolen Trump calls for ban on mail-in early voting ahead of midterms Wimp Trump tried to bully Pence out of certifying ballot on Jan In it for the long haul Stewart shares Trump s tell that he s running in The post Trump administration proposal for online voter registration form raises concerns appeared first on Salon com