US election battle heats up as courts block Donald Trump’s overhaul of election rules | What we know so far | Today’s news

US President Donald Trump’s efforts to reshape the way elections are conducted suffered a series of setbacks last week as Republican senators resisted his proposals and several courts blocked key parts of his administration’s plans, with one judge saying the measures would undermine the “sacred right to vote,” according to The Washington Post.

The backlash is said to have frustrated Trump, prompting him to escalate his criticism and demands as he expresses growing concerns about possible investigations and impeachment efforts if Democrats take control of Congress.

With the general election just four months away, Trump is racing against time as states finalize arrangements for early voting.

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Meanwhile, the administration’s accelerated push to overhaul election rules through several federal agencies has resulted in a rapidly changing and legally contested political environment. Many of the proposed changes are now tied up in court, creating uncertainty for election officials, potentially confusing voters and raising concerns that allegations of voter fraud and post-election disputes could resurface, the Washington Post reported.

“The administration is doing its best to bring chaos to the election cycle,” said Wendy Weiser, vice president for democracy at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, a voting rights organization that has sued the administration over election policies. “The top priority of this administration is to try to interfere in this election.”

The courts are headed against Trump

Last week, the courts handed the Trump administration five legal setbacks. The first came Monday, when a federal judge blocked the use of the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration database to verify voter eligibility, the Washington Post reported.

U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan ruled that the use of the database violated federal privacy laws and resulted in some eligible U.S. citizens being mislabeled as noncitizens, leading to the cancellation of their voter registration.

“The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a way that threatens the sacred right to vote,” she wrote. “This court cannot stand idly by as this happens.

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James Percival, DHS’s general counsel, expressed frustration with the ruling. “It’s amazing how hard the left will fight to stop us from solving problems they insist don’t exist,” he wrote on social media in response to critics who point to a lack of evidence that non-citizens are voting in large numbers.

Trump ordered the creation of the database through an executive order last year, which also sought to require voters to provide proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. But that provision has been blocked by several federal judges, including one who issued a ruling Wednesday.

Amid legal setbacks, Trump has repeatedly urged the Senate to pass legislation mandating proof of citizenship for voter registration and requiring voters to show identification before casting a ballot. But the proposal remains on hold because Republican senators have refused to change long-standing rules that would have allowed passage by a simple majority.

“President Trump is committed to ensuring that the American people have full confidence in the election process, and that includes absolutely accurate and up-to-date voter rolls free of errors and illegally registered non-citizen voters,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, as reported by the Washington Post.

The Supreme Court can reduce postal deadlines

Other efforts by the Trump administration to reshape election procedures have also met with setbacks. The Justice Department has filed lawsuits against 30 states seeking access to their voter rolls, but has lost all nine cases decided so far, along with one appeal, The Washington Post reported.

Trump’s allies, meanwhile, are seeking a favorable Supreme Court ruling in a case that could impose stricter deadlines for counting ballots. Republicans say only ballots received by election officials on or before Election Day should be counted.

The Washington Post reported that 14 states and the District of Columbia currently count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, provided they are postmarked by the deadline. An additional 16 states allow the later return of ballots from military personnel and overseas voters. Any move to tighten those deadlines would require states to launch costly public awareness campaigns to tell millions of voters to cast their ballots early, especially because of lingering concerns about postal delays.

Meanwhile, new legal battles are emerging. Earlier this month, the Republican National Committee filed lawsuits against election officials in Nebraska and Colorado, seeking to prevent some U.S. citizens living abroad — including adult children of U.S. citizens who have never resided in the United States — from voting.

Many Democrats see last-minute attempts to change election laws as voter suppression.

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“Less access has always historically been something that has harmed more people than helped anyone,” visual artist Nadya Yaksich, 30, said last week after voting in the Democratic primary at Wheaton High School in Maryland.

But book cataloger Carola Lewis, 62, said after voting in the Republican primary at the same school that she would have more confidence in the election results if all voters were required to show ID and prove they were citizens.

“As a citizen, I follow the law, I pay my taxes, I do what I’m supposed to do, I go vote,” Lewis said. “And then not being 100 percent sure that it’s just Americans voting is actually scary to me.”

(With inputs from The Washington Post)