Written by Nicholas Vetrisek
Last week, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom regarding his mail-in ballot executive order. The plaintiffs include congressional candidate Darrell Issa, who has been an adamant critic of widescale mail-in voting for its implications on election integrity.
.@GavinNewsom is attempting to change the way we run elections by executive order. Sorry governor, but we have laws for that kind of thing. I talked about my lawsuit to make sure the governor follows the law on @FoxNews this morning. https://t.co/TDj3YiIui9
— Darrell Issa (@DarrellIssa) May 24, 2020
Judicial Watch is arguing that Executive Order N-64-20, which orders that every California county conduct all-mail ballot elections, violates the U.S. Constitution as well as California state law. The Constitution says that only state legislatures are allowed to decide the “Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives.” Judicial Watch states that the “California Legislature never delegated to [Newsom] its authority under the Elections Clause or Electors Clause to regulate the manner of conducting elections for senators, representatives, or presidential electors.”
Judicial Watch also added that the executive order violates the California Voter’s Choice Act, which allows counties to opt-in or out of mail-in voting. They are arguing that the law is proof of the Legislature’s support of each individual county’s right to choose if they want to adopt the system.
BREAKING: Judicial Watch announced it filed a lawsuit to stop the special, statewide vote-by-mail mandate issued by California Governor Gavin Newsom (1/3).https://t.co/bDjNoOq7NL
— Judicial Watch ⚖️ (@JudicialWatch) May 22, 2020
There are also major concerns that the system will result in massive voter fraud. “Governor Newsom’s vote-by-mail mandate is unconstitutional and may cause the votes of countless voters to be thrown out or not counted,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. California law prohibits blindly mailing out ballots to every registered voter in the state. This scheme raises the risk of Election Day chaos as well as voter fraud.”
