Attorney General Todd Rokita is co-leading 16 states in fighting federal interference with election laws after U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland vowed to deploy armies of lawyers into the states to combat “legislative measures that make it harder for millions of eligible voters to vote.”
“The Biden administration is weaponizing the U.S. Department of Justice against the states,” Attorney General Rokita said. “These actions pose a direct threat to democracy, election integrity and the rule of law. We will stand up and defend our rightful authority within the framework of American federalism.”
Speaking in March, Garland said he had “double[d] the number of lawyers in the civil rights division” and “launched the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force” to deal with states allegedly maintaining “discriminatory, burdensome, and unnecessary restrictions on access to the ballot.”
Attorney General Rokita and West Virgina Attorney General Patrick Morrisey co-led a 16-state letter to Garland warning that the states would “vigorously defend our election laws” and “not allow intimidation and fearmongering to supersede the will of the people.”
The very premise of Garland’s threats — the idea that states are depriving or hindering U.S. citizens from freely and easily casting votes — is false and ludicrous, the letter notes.
One of the measures at which Garland and others have taken aim is voter ID laws — which they claim disenfranchise eligible voters.
“On the contrary,” the letter states, “voter ID laws prevent voter fraud by stopping those who attempt to impersonate others at the polls. In 2005, Indiana led the charge to preserve election integrity by implementing the first-in-the-nation voter ID law, which requires in-person voters to present a valid government-issued photo ID to vote — (and) the United States Supreme Court held that voter ID laws were constitutional and did not impose a burden on the electorate.”
Amid reports of fraud in various parts of the nation, many Americans distrust the results of the 2020 general election. Some polls indicate more than 30 percent of the electorate believe the election was stolen.
“With voter confidence at an all-time low,” Attorney General Rokita said, “the U.S. Department of Justice should champion voter security measures instead of attacking states that implement them. And the DOJ should respect, as well, the constitutional provisions giving states the role of regulating elections.”
The full letter is attached.
