Three Michigan VA locations will pilot voter registration sites.

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has filed a lawsuit against Michigan officials, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, to block a directive to designate Veterans Affairs offices and other public facilities as voter registration sites.

Per the lawsuit, filed Monday, the Trump campaign seeks a "permanent injunction barring the state … from designating any VRAs [voter registration agencies] without express authorization from the Michigan Legislature."

The directive — which would have instituted registration offices in Michigan Veterans Affairs, Worker’s Disability Compensation Agency and U.S. Small Business Administration offices — would have enabled Michiganders to check, update, and join the voter rolls more easily.

But the Republican National Committee-backed lawsuit alleges that Whitmer’s office didn’t have the legal authority to open the sites, further adding without evidence that Whitmer’s move “undermines the integrity of elections by increasing the opportunity for individuals to register to vote even though they are ineligible to do so.”

“When more Michiganders vote, our government is more accountable to the people,” Whitmer wrote in the December 2023 directive that created the registration sites. “I am fully committed to protecting the fundamental right to vote, making participation in our democracy more accessible, combatting misinformation, and empowering all eligible voters to make their voices heard.”

Michigan, a state Trump won in 2016 and lost in 2020, is seen as a crucial battleground state, with his campaign pulling out massive fundraising and advertising efforts, paired with its legal battle to strip back voter registration following its failed 2020 effort to “stop the count” of votes in the state.

A veterans rights group has entered the fray of the lawsuit filed by former President Donald Trump’s campaign against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, saying the group wants to file a motion to dismiss.

The lawsuit filed last week accuses Whitmer of illegally allowing voter registration at places such as the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Vet Voice Foundation said in a memorandum in support of motion to intervene that the lawsuit succeeding would make it harder for veterans to vote.

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“This case aims to make it harder for veterans to register to vote just months before a presidential election. Accordingly, the justification for this motion to intervene is straightforward and uncontestable: veterans deserve a voice in how the case is resolved,” lawyers wrote.
Whitmer last year issued an executive directive to designate Saginaw VA Medical Center, the Detroit VA Medical Center and the Department’s Detroit Regional Office as voter registration agencies (VRAs). She also allowed people to register to vote at the state Department of Health and Human Services and Housing Development Authority, among other agencies.

According to the Trump campaign, Michigan law says only the state legislature, not the governor, can designate the VRAs. But Vet Voice said the case is “meritless.”

From the motion:

More importantly for present purposes, none of the Plaintiffs can claim to speak for veterans. Nor can any of the Defendants, all of whom are government officers or agencies with an array of official obligations. But Proposed Intervenor Vet Voice Foundation (“Vet Voice”) can speak for veterans — that is why Vet Voice was founded, and that is what it does every single day. And this case threatens its substantial interests, including its ongoing effort to turn out as many veteran and active-duty military voters in Michigan as possible.

Trump’s lawsuit says no VRAs have been established in Michigan since 1995 when then-Gov. John Engler enacted them in response to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. Whitmer in her directive said, “The operative list of Michigan’s voter registration agencies is nearly 30 years old and in need of an update.”

The suit also claims that the VA and Small Business Administration violated the registration act and are “undermining confidence in the integrity of the electoral process and discouraging participation in the democratic process, which will harm the electoral prospects of Republican candidates.” It asked a judge to order an injunction to bar the SBA and VA from operating as voter registration agencies without authorization from the state legislature and declare Whitmer’s executive directive as invalid.

But Vet Voice said the lawsuit should be dismissed based on the Eleventh Amendment, which limits the ability of people to sue states in federal court if they are not citizens of that state.

“Rather than celebrating Michigan’s effort to encourage voter registration, Plaintiffs have sued to stop it,” lawyers wrote, adding that adding agencies such as the VA and SBA as registration sites “in no way injures them.”

The suit should be tossed, the group says.

“For the foregoing reasons, Vet Voice respectfully requests that the Court dismiss the entire Complaint with prejudice,” it said.

Vet Voice is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, although it tends to take progressive stances on certain issues. It came out in support of the VA when the agency said it would provide abortion services to members after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The organization is represented in the Michigan case by Marc Elias’ firm. Elias worked for the Joe Biden campaign’s efforts to ward off Trump’s post-2020 election lawsuits.