Oregon sues to reverse Trump orders to require proof of citizenship to vote, receive mail-in ballots by Election Day

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield joined his counterparts in 20 Democratic states by filing lawsuits this week to invalidate an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that could upend their voting systems by requiring proof of citizenship and that mail-in ballots be received by Election Day, not merely be postmarked by that date.

In a joint announcement Friday, Rayfield called Trump’s order “a blatant attempt to rig the system and suppress votes.” And Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read condemned Trump’s order as a ploy to “take away Oregonians’ right to vote” that is simply “illegal.”

“He’s trying to make it harder for people to vote,” Rayfield said. “It’s a direct assault on the Constitution and a brazen attempt to act like a king, dictating how states should run their elections. No president, no matter how hungry, gets to strip away our right to run our own voting system in Oregon or any other state.”

Oregon and Washington, which filed their suit together Friday in federal court in Washington, are among 18 states that accept ballots postmarked as late as Election Day, according to Rayfield’s office. The other 19 states suing over Trump’s executive order filed a unified suit Thursday in Massachusetts.

Protecting Oregon’s elections system as it currently stands has been a hot topic as of late. A Republican-sponsored bill in the Oregon Legislature that would ask voters to end the state’s first-in-the-nation, decades-old vote-by-mail system attracted more than 14,000 pieces of written testimony this week. The overwhelming majority urged lawmakers to ax the bill, which will most certainly happen because Democrats hold a majority in both houses.

Friday, Oregon’s attorney general also filed a second lawsuit, joining a coalition of 15 states that are asking a judge to nullify Trump’s cuts and delays in the National Institute of Health’s system of awarding grants to institutions like Oregon Health & Science University for research into cancer, diabetes, AIDS and opioid addiction.

“This administration thinks they can play games with public health and research, but they’re messing with the future of science and the well-being of Oregonians,” Rayfield said. “Oregon’s researchers deserve the resources they need to make breakthroughs, not to be held hostage by political games.”

Oregon also filed a third lawsuit Friday seeking to reverse Trump’s attempts to cut money to state library programs and museums, including a popular elementary, middle and high school reading competition called Battle of the Books. Oregon was among 20 states to band together in that lawsuit.

Together, the three lawsuits bring Oregon’s total number filed during Trump’s second term so far to 12. At this point last time around — 74 days into Trump’s first term — Rayfield said Oregon had filed just one lawsuit over the president’s use of power. That single lawsuit challenged Trump’s 2017 executive order banning people from entering the United States from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

Rayfield said he never imagined that just three months into his tenure that he’d have filed so much litigation. But it’s becoming the “new norm” because Trump has more actively been “overstepping” his authority in his second term, Rayfield said.

“The president has a lot of powers in the world,” Rayfield said. “The president does not have the power to ignore the United States Constitution, nor does the president have the ability to ignore federal law.”

— Aimee Green is covering the Oregon Legislature this session. Reach her at 503-294-5119, agreen@oregonian.com or on Bluesky.

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