Democratic Senators Press for Continued Implementation of Biden’s Pro-Voting Executive Order
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Thirteen Democratic U.S. senators, led by Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), sent a letter yesterday to the General Services Administration (GSA) requesting an update and pressing for the urgent implementation of President Joe Biden’s March 2021 executive order that seeks to modernize and promote voting access.
As part of his order, Biden mandates a full-scale modernization of the Vote.gov website in order to make the website “fully usable as an online experience” and be more accessible to those with disabilities and those who speak non-English languages, according to the letter.
“Vote.gov serves as the primary federal resource for voters to register to vote, check their voter registration status, and find voting information. These services are essential to the one in four eligible voters who are not registered to vote,” the letter reads.
The letter takes note of progress that GSA has already made, including translating trustworthy voter information in 16 additional languages, but the senators seek to “underscore the urgency and significance of swiftly continuing this progress and urge the GSA to promptly implement needed changes to Vote.gov.”
The senators ask GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan to provide:
- A complete outline of GSA’s implementation plan of the executive order,
- An accompanying status update and timeline on their execution and/or implementation
- And the date the administration expects the implementation and modernization to be substantially complete.
Though yesterday’s letter pertains specifically to the section of the executive order on Vote.gov’s modernization, Biden’s order also directs federal agencies to increase access to information about voter registration and elections, calls on some agencies to maximize participation under the National Voter Registration Act, asks the federal government to model how employers can encourage civic participation from their employees and orders agencies to design recommendations to help maximize participation from various communities.
In August 2022, 15 Republican secretaries of state sent a letter to Biden asking him to rescind the executive order aimed at expanding voter access, and just last month Pennsylvania Republicans filed a lawsuit invoking the discredited independent state legislature theory to argue that Biden’s order violates the U.S. Constitution.