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By Nate Raymond
BOSTON (Reuters) -Democratic state attorneys general on Thursday filed a lawsuit challenging U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order that compels voters to prove they are U.S. citizens and bars states from counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day.
The lawsuit, filed in Boston federal court, followed two other lawsuits against Trump's order. The states said Trump was unconstitutionally trying to "amend election law by fiat."
In the latest action, California and Nevada led 19 states in arguing the president lacked any independent power to modify states' election procedures although Congress under the Constitution may preempt state laws for federal elections.
"Neither the Constitution nor Congress authorize the president's attempted voting restrictions," California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said in a statement. "We will not be bullied by him."
Trump signed the March 25 executive order after years of raising doubts about the integrity of the U.S. electoral system and falsely claiming his 2020 loss to Democratic former President Joe Biden was due to widespread voter fraud.
White House spokesman Harrison Fields said in a statement that Democrats were showing disdain for the Constitution by objecting to Trump's commonsense efforts to protect election integrity.
"The Trump administration is standing up for free, fair, and honest elections and asking this basic question is essential to our Constitutional Republic," Fields said.
In announcing the executive order, Trump said it was needed to "straighten out our elections." He and his Republican allies have made baseless claims about widespread voting by non-citizens, which is illegal and rarely occurs.
His order is already being challenged in court by the Democratic National Committee and the two top Democrats in Congress, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries.
In Thursday's lawsuit, the attorneys general argued that Trump does not have unilateral authority to create an onerous new requirement that voters document their citizenship.
They said that provision not only violates the Constitution but also runs afoul of the National Voting Rights Act. That law requires only that a person attest to their citizenship under penalty of perjury when registering to vote, they said.
The attorneys general said the order also violates states' constitutional authority over elections by threatening those who do not comply with loss of federal funding and Department of Justice investigations.
Trump's order effectively bars states from counting mail-in ballots arriving after Election Day, even if they are postmarked on time, and upends procedures intended to increase voter participation, the states said.
"The president's attempt to control our elections, intimidate voters, and limit Americans’ right to vote is unconstitutional, undemocratic, and frankly, un-American," said New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and Jack Queen in New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Cynthia Osterman and Mark Porter)
