US election officials question agency about Trump's order overhauling election operations

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — State and local election officials from around the country on Thursday questioned the leaders of a federal agency directed by President Donald Trump to implement parts of his sweeping election overhaul executive order, with some expressing concerns about the consequences for voters and the people in charge of voting.

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission, an independent and bipartisan federal agency, is at the center of Trump’s March 25 order that directs the commission to update the national voter registration form to include a proof-of-citizenship requirement and revise guidelines for voting systems. Trump also wants it to withhold federal money from any state that continues to accept ballots after Election Day even if they are postmarked by then.

Whether the Republican president can order an independent agency to act and whether the commission has the authority to do what Trump wants will likely be settled in court.

A federal judge on Thursday issued a preliminary injunction blocking the proof-of-citizenship requirement from moving forward while the legal challenges over Trump’s executive order play out.

Meanwhile, members of the commission’s Standards Board – a bipartisan advisory group of election officials from every state – met in North Carolina for its annual meeting. It was among the first conversations held by those who oversee the nation’s voting on the implications of Trump’s executive order.

The meeting was an opportunity for election officials to ask the four EAC commissioners about Trump’s executive order and share their concerns about its effects on election administration and voting.

“I can see on your faces there’s a lot of concern in this room for this process and other aspects of it,” Commissioner Thomas Hicks said. “And I would highly encourage you to send comments to us on that.”

An election official from Utah raised concern about how Native American communities might be affected under a proof-of-citizenship requirement, while an election official from Florida asked how voting machine companies could be expected to respond when a voting system has yet to be certified to meet the latest guidelines, which were updated in 2021.

“And they’re going to what — ramp up production and provide voting equipment for all 50 states and five territories?” asked Paul Lux, elections supervisor in Okaloosa County.

Donald Palmer, chair of the Election Assistance Commission, sought to reassure election officials that the commission would weigh their concerns and encouraged them to continue sharing their thoughts.

“Wherever we end up in this process, my goal is to provide the least disruption to the states, to mitigate any impact on you and your voting systems,” Palmer told the group.

The court ruling temporarily blocking the commission from taking steps to implement the proof-of-citizenship requirement came in a consolidated group of lawsuits filed by voting rights groups and Democrats that challenged Trump's authority to order election changes.

“Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the States—not the President—with the authority to regulate federal elections,” wrote U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in the opinion.

The judge noted Congress was currently debating legislation on a proof-of-citizenship requirement when registering to vote in federal elections and “no statutory delegation of authority to the Executive Branch permits the President to short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process by executive order.”

In response to the court ruling, Palmer said the agency would comply and was “committed to serving election officials and voters."

Maine's chief election official, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, was at Thursday's meeting in North Carolina and welcomed the judge's decision.

“Everyone agrees that only citizens should vote in federal elections," said Bellows, a Democrat. "And the Trump executive order was an unworkable and unconstitutional attempt to limit voting rights.”

Two separate groups of Democratic state officials have also filed lawsuits, and those cases are pending.

The Constitution says it’s up to states to determine the “times, places and manner” of how elections are run, while Congress has the power to “make or alter” regulations for presidential and congressional elections. It does not grant the president any authority over how elections are administered.

Congress created the Election Assistance Commission after the 2000 presidential election, which included a contested outcome in Florida, to help states update their voting equipment.

Under the 2002 law, the commission was charged with distributing federal money for new voting equipment, creating voluntary guidelines for voting systems, establishing a federal testing and certification program for them, and overseeing the national voter registration form. It also has worked closely with the states to gather an array of data and share ideas on how to run elections more efficiently.

Trump, who continues to make false claims about the 2020 presidential election, instructed the commission to “take appropriate action” within 30 days to require documentary proof of citizenship on the national voter registration form. The order outlines acceptable documents as a U.S. passport, a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license or official military ID that “indicates the applicant is a citizen,” or a government-issued photo ID accompanied by proof of citizenship.

Both the process for updating the national voter registration form and making changes to the nation’s voluntary voting system guidelines are outlined in federal law. For the form, that involves getting feedback from state election officials and from the agency’s advisory boards. The process for the voting system guidelines also includes a period for public comment and a hearing.

The requirement has caused widespread concern that it will disenfranchise millions of voters who don’t have a passport or ready access to their birth certificate or other documents that will prove their citizenship. Similar laws at the state level have caused disruptions, including during town elections last month in New Hampshire and in Kansas, where a since overturned law ended up blocking the voter registrations of 31,000 people who were citizens and otherwise eligible to vote.

Trump’s order also directed the Election Assistance Commission to “take all appropriate action to cease” federal money for any state that fails to use the form that includes the proof-of-citizenship requirement, though a handful of states are exempt under federal law from using the national form.

Some states would have to halt their practice of counting late-arriving mail ballots that are postmarked by Election Day. If they don’t, Trump’s executive order directs the commission to withhold election-related funding. Oregon and Washington have filed a separate lawsuit against the executive order, saying it would upend their elections because they rely entirely on mail voting.

Commissioner Thomas Hicks speaks during the U.S. Election Assistance Commission Standards Board in-person public meeting, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Commissioner Thomas Hicks speaks during the U.S. Election Assistance Commission Standards Board in-person public meeting, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Commissioner Thomas Hicks takes a picture during the U.S. Election Assistance Commission Standards Board in-person public meeting, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Commissioner Donald Palmer speaks during a U.S. Election Assistance Commission Standards Board in-person public meeting, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

A meeting goer arrives for a U.S. Election Assistance Commission Standards Board in-person public meeting, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

President Donald Trump on Thursday visits a U.S. base installation at the center of American involvement in the Middle East as he uses his four-day visit to Gulf states to reject the “interventionism” of America’s past in the region.

In other parts of the Middle East violence flared in the West Bank and Gaza, A hospital in southern Gaza says 54 people have been killed in overnight airstrikes on the city of Khan Younis.

with a pregnant Israeli woman killed even as the international rights group ,Human Rights Watch ,said that Israel’s plan to seize Gaza, remain in the territory and displace hundreds of thousands of people “inches closer to extermination.”

Trump plans to address troops at Qatar’s al-Udeid Air Base, which was a major staging ground during the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and supported the recent U.S. air campaign against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis. The president has held up Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia and Qatar as models for economic development in a region plagued by conflict as he works to entice Iran to come to terms with his administration on a deal to curb its nuclear program.

The President also meets business leaders in Qatar and heads to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

President Donald Trump has suggested that India has offered to drop tariffs on U.S. goods to zero, something not immediately acknowledged by New Delhi.

Trump made the comments during a business roundtable in Doha, Qatar, on his Mideast tour, first discussing Apple’s plans to build manufacturing plants for its iPhone there.

“It’s very hard to sell into India and and they’ve offered us a deal with what basically they’re willing to literally charge us no tariff,” Trump said. India is a close partner of the U.S. and is part of the Quad, which is made up of the U.S., India, Japan and Australia, and is seen as a counterbalance to China’s expansion in the region

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that he didn’t think Russian President Vladimir Putin would go to talks in Turkey with Ukraine if he wasn’t there.

Trump made the remarks at a business roundtable in Qatar on his Mideast trip.

“I didn’t think it was possible for Putin to go if I’m not there,” Trump said.

Trump had suggested he could travel there for the talks if Putin was going. On Thursday, however, Trump said: “I actually said, why would he go if I’m not going? Because I wasn’t going to go. I wasn’t planning to go. I would go, but I wasn’t planning to go. And I said, I don’t think he’s going to go if I don’t go.”

Trump sat with GE Aerospace’s Larry Culp and Boeing Co.’s Kelly Ortberg on either side of him on Thursday. Both praised Trump for his support for the Qatar Airways order for Boeing aircraft. Ortberg called it one of the largest orders Boeing has ever had.

A hospital in southern Gaza says 54 people have been killed in overnight airstrikes on the city of Khan Younis.

An Associated Press cameraman in Khan Younis counted 10 airstrikes on the city overnight into Thursday, and saw numerous bodies taken to the morgue in the city’s Nasser Hospital. Some bodies arrived in pieces, with some body bags containing the remains of multiple people. The hospital’s morgue confirmed 54 people had been killed.

It was the second night of heavy bombing, after airstrikes Wednesday on northern and southern Gaza killed at least 70 people, including almost two dozen children.

The strikes come as U.S. President Donald Trump visits the Middle East, visiting Gulf states but not Israel. There had been widespread hope that Trump’s regional visit could usher in a ceasefire deal or renewal of humanitarian aid to Gaza. An Israeli blockade of the territory is now in its third month.

Qatar’s satellite news channel Al Jazeera long has been a powerful force in the Middle East, often taking editorial positions at odds with America’s interests in the region during the wars that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by al-Qaida.

But during President Donald Trump’s visit to the Gulf Arab nation this week, state-funded Al Jazeera muted its typical critiques of American foreign policy.

The channel, which broadcasts in Arabic and English, broadly covered Trump’s visit in a straightforward manner, highlighting it was the first-ever trip to Qatar by a sitting American leader. Mentions of the Israel-Hamas war, which Al Jazeera often has criticized America over for its military support to Israel, did not include any critiques of U.S. policy. Instead, journalists highlighted Qatar’s role as a mediator in the war and aired comments by Qatar’s ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, calling for a ceasefire.

After a morning meeting with top U.S. and Qatari officials and American defense and aerospace business leaders, Trump heads to Al-Udeid Air Base, a U.S. installation at the center of American involvement in the Middle East. There, he will address troops and is expected to view a demonstration of American air capability.

The president then travels to the United Arab Emirates, the final leg of his first major foreign trip. He will head first to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and then to a state visit hosted at Abu Dhabi’s Qasr al-Watan palace.

The international rights group said that Israel’s plan to seize Gaza, remain in the territory and displace hundreds of thousands of people “inches closer to extermination.”

It called on the international community to speak out against the plan. It said that the new plans, coupled with the “systematic destruction” of civilian infrastructure and the block on all imports into Gaza, were cause for signatories to the Genocide Convention to act to prevent Israel’s moves. It said states should halt weapons transfers to Israel and enforce international arrest warrants against Israel’s prime minister and former defense minister, as well as review their bilateral agreements with the country.

Israel vehemently denies accusations that it is committing genocide in Gaza.

The group also called on Hamas to free the 58 hostages it still holds in Gaza, 23 of whom are believed to be alive.

A pregnant Israeli woman has died after she was shot and critically wounded in a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank, a hospital said Thursday.

Beilinson Hospital said that doctors succeeded in saving her unborn baby, who was in serious but stable condition after being delivered by caesarean section.

The Israeli military said a Palestinian assailant opened fire on a vehicle late Wednesday, wounded two civilians. Soldiers launched a search for the attacker.

It’s the latest violence in the Palestinian territory, where the Israeli military has launched a major operation that it says is meant to crack down on militancy. The operation has displaced tens of thousands of people.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in months of violence that surged there after the start of the war in Gaza.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani welcomes President Donald Trump during an official welcoming ceremony at the Amiri Diwan in Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)