Mississippi’s Secretary of State has penned a fiery letter to President Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ), urgently requesting it stop enforcing a Biden executive order that is allegedly being used to register “potentially ineligible” people to vote in the Magnolia State.
In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson called out Executive Order No. 14019, which directed federal agencies to “consider ways to expand citizens’ opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process.”
“As you are aware, on March 7, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order No. 14019 which sought to turn the Department of Justice agencies from their historical missions of law enforcement to voter registration and get out the vote operations,” Watson wrote earlier this week, according to Fox News Digital.
“These efforts are an intrusion into state matters and are a misuse of federal revenue and resources,” Watson stated. “In addition, it appears that these efforts have led to agencies under your charge attempting to register people to vote, including potentially ineligible felons and to co-opt state and local officials into accomplishing this goal.”
“It is the responsibility of the Federal Government to expand access to, and education about, voter registration and election information, and to combat misinformation, in order to enable all eligible Americans to participate in our democracy,” the EO read.
But, according to Watson, it “forces the U.S. Marshals Service” to “modify agreements with jails” that require them “to provide voter registration materials and facilitate voting by mail.”
“According to the Marshals Service, they are modifying 936 contracts or intergovernmental agreements to require state and local government complicity in the potential registration of ineligible prisoners to vote,” Watson wrote. “It further requires the Department of Justice to facilitate voter registration and mail voting for individuals in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons.”
“This program creates numerous opportunities for ineligible prisoners to be registered to vote in Mississippi,” he warned.
These efforts continue to spin out of EO 14019, with which President Biden weaponized/mobilized federal agencies to engage in voter registration and GOTV efforts like this. Granted, I’m sure they’ll strive to turn out an equal number of R voters… https://t.co/WEFWurrlyW
— Secretary Michael Watson (@MichaelWatsonMS) March 2, 2024
Speaking to Fox News Digital, Watson expressed his distrust of the Biden administration.
“Forgive me for not necessarily trusting the Biden administration, but in Mississippi, we’ve got rules and regulations dealing with who can vote when it comes to felons,” he said. “[T]here are disenfranchising crimes in our state and I don’t specifically think that the Biden administration cares [about] crossing those T’s and dotting those I’s when it comes to making sure these folks can or can’t vote, they’re going to register them, including illegal aliens in custody so we’ve got major issues and that’s what led to writing this letter to Attorney General Garland.”
The program, Watson wrote in his letter, “provides prisoners with misleading information concerning their right to both register and vote in Mississippi – a right which they may not have.”
“For example, many of the people in the custody of the Marshals are convicted felons whom Mississippi law deems ineligible to vote. Additionally, many of those in custody only have fleeting ties to Mississippi and do not meet the residency requirements necessary to be a Mississippi voter,” he told Garland.
Mississippi jails, he wrote, are being urged to “work with other reliable sources of voter information to assist federal prisoners with voter registration, voting by mail, and notification of upcoming elections.”
“We are unaware of any contact with our Office,” Watson wrote to Garland, “which begs the question, which organizations are the Marshals using to accomplish this demand?”
“Many outside groups performing voter registration and vote harvesting services are partisan entities with a history of being unreliable,” he told the AG. “There have been documented instances of these groups providing incorrect directions to voters. It is not proper for the Federal government to push partisan groups into the voting process in Mississippi or any other state.”
Without proper monitoring, illegal immigrants who have landed in Mississippi’s prison system could potentially be registered to vote, Watson argued.
“Our understanding is that everyone in the Marshals’ custody is given a form advising them of their right to register and vote,” the letter reads. “Providing ineligible non-citizens with information on how to register to vote undoubtedly encourages them to illegally register to vote, exposing them to legal jeopardy beyond their immigration status.”
“Watson’s letter says that it is ‘quite shocking’ that the Biden administration would ‘expend tax dollars and vital law enforcement resources’ on a program ‘that risks bloating state voter rolls with ineligible and non-citizen voters’ during a time when millions of illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border,” Fox News Digital reports.
The EO amounts to a “power” grab, Watson told the outlet, calling the issue “urgent” with the presidential election fast approaching.
“If you look at what’s going on at the border when you’ve got so many illegal aliens pouring into our country, imagine the efforts used to get them to register to vote, and that’s what this is all about,” Watson told Fox News Digital. “It’s about control, it’s about continuing their power, and unfortunately that puts our country in a terrible position, so it’s immediate and it’s something where we hope they will respect our request to stop the program.”
“The information we want to see is which prisons they’re working in in Mississippi,” he said. “[W]e’ve asked them to prove to us the documentation, what exactly are you doing in our prisons?”
“We want to make sure we understand which prisoners you’ve been talking to, so we can understand whether or not they’re eligible to vote,’ he explained, “and I think it’s incumbent upon all of the states to take this notice up and to push back as hard as we can because with this election coming up in November it is incredibly important to the future of our country.
“What we have left of it.”
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Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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