Within hours of President Donald Trump issuing an executive order Tuesday that attempts to create lists of eligible voters and crack down on mail-in voting, Utah’s top election official — a Republican — mocked the threats from the head of her party.
“POV: When the latest Executive Order reminds you of that time when you were a senior in high school and you performed in a one act play called ‘Jack or the Submission’ by absurdist playwright Eugene Ionesco and it was super weird and the script was full of nonsensical dialogue,” Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson wrote in a Threads post Tuesday evening, with a link to the order.
Henderson’s remarks come in the midst of Trump’s Justice Department suing Utah and, so far, 28 other states to gain full access to their voter databases. Federal courts have thrown out four of those lawsuits.
Utah’s lieutenant governor has pushed back on the request for months now, saying it has no legal basis and violates the state’s privacy laws. Trump’s latest effort to exert control over elections appears to collide with Utah law, too.
If a state allows residents to vote through the mail, like Utah, they are instructed to use a federally created “Citizenship List” to compile their own roll of eligible voters to be shared with the U.S. Postal Service, which is directed not to deliver ballots belonging to voters not on the list.
Despite the Trump administration’s order, the U.S. Constitution says states have the power to determine how they run their own electoral processes.
According to the White House, the intent of the order is “protecting the integrity of our elections.” But it is already illegal for noncitizens to register to vote — in Utah, residents must sign an affidavit certifying their citizenship. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in U.S. elections, and noncitizens successfully casting a ballot is exceedingly rare.
Read Emily Anderson Stern and Addy Baird's full story at sltrib.com.
This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.