Trump Revokes Biden’s 2021 Executive Order Expanding Voting Access

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump rescinded former President Joe Biden’s 2021 executive order promoting voting access and expanding voter registration.

Biden’s Executive Order 14019, which he signed in March 2021, expanded access to voting and accurate election information in many ways, such as allowing federal agencies to share data with states that seek to establish automatic voter registration efforts and making federal workers and resources available to assist at polling locations.

Since Biden issued it, this executive order has faced a barrage of legal challenges from Republican officials in states like Missouri,  Kansas, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas, who argued that it was federal overreach and stripped power away from states. 

During Biden’s presidency, Republicans had not succeeded in voiding the executive order — some courts even rejecting their arguments — but litigation remained ongoing in multiple cases.

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (R) and Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston (R) argued the order violated state sovereignty and usurped Congress’ powers in regulating federal elections. A judge rejected their case in October, stating that the GOP officials didn’t provide sufficient evidence that the executive order was significantly harming them.

The plaintiffs in the Pennsylvania case even asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case,  invoking the radical independent state legislature theory, which claims that only state legislatures can regulate federal elections, but the justices declined to weigh in.

In August, nine Republican states sued over the executive order, but Nov. 15 — after Trump won the 2024 election — the GOP plaintiffs asked the court to pause the case until February or until Trump rescinded the executive order. 

Essentially, they determined their case wouldn’t be necessary because they knew Trump would likely revoke the order once he entered office, and they were correct.

Under the U.S. Constitution, a president can rescind executive orders from previous administrations at any time. On Monday, Trump revoked dozens of Biden’s orders, claiming that “[t]he previous administration has embedded deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical practices within every agency and office of the Federal Government.”

Read about previous GOP efforts to block Biden’s order here.