By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
April 10, 2025
Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales is touting his recent participation in discussions for implementing President Donald Trump’s executive order on elections and the opportunity he had to thank the president for signing the order, even as 19 states have asked a federal district court to block the directive, calling it “unconstitutional, antidemocratic, and un-American.”
Morales issued a press release Wednesday, saying he has been in Washington, D.C., this week for “meetings and briefings” with the National Association of Secretaries of State and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Also, he said he had been invited to the White House to witness Trump signing an executive order aimed at reviving the coal industry and increasing the use of coal in domestic energy production.
The National Association of Secretaries of State confirmed that Morales met with Lindsey Forson, deputy executive director, and Maria Benson, senior director of communications, at the NASS D.C. office on Tuesday. They talked for about 20 minutes and discussed Morales’ work in Indiana on elections, securities and business services issues. He then presented Forson and Benson with his Indiana Secretary of State “challenge coins” as a token of appreciation.
Likewise, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission confirmed Morales met with an EAC commissioner yesterday, but did not provide any details about what was discussed or how long they talked.
Previously, Morales had spoken in support of Trump’s elections executive order, currently the target of a handful of lawsuits, including one filed by Democratic attorneys general in 19 states.
The executive order, entitled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections” and signed by Trump on March 25, includes several provisions placing new requirements on states in the administration of elections, threatening to withhold federal funds for noncompliance and mandating voters prove they are U.S. citizens.
“One of our biggest accomplishments since taking office has been our efforts to finally ask for proof of citizenship when individuals try to register to vote,” Morales said in a statement after the elections executive order was signed by Trump. “During my time in office, I’ve heard numerous concerns about non-citizens being registered to vote – either through the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) or during various voter registration drives. We are determined to ensure this does not happen in Indiana, and non-citizens will not end up on our voter rolls.”
However, election law attorneys and voting rights advocates have declared the executive order to be illegal and unconstitutional. Michael Waldman, president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice, an independent, nonpartisan law and policy nonprofit, described Trump’s order as “flatly illegal in most of its particulars.” Also, Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project, denounced the order as “weaponizing xenophobia and the myth of voter fraud to jeopardize our rights.”
Julia Vaughn, executive director of Common Cause Indiana, said the executive order will currently have “zero impact” on Hoosier voters, because election laws are under the purview of Congress and the states, and a president cannot override those statutes. Even so, she sees the order as “a threat to free and fair elections” and an “effort to disenfranchise more Americans with rules that are targeted, that are based on false stories about problems that don’t exist.”
The executive order asserts “the United States now fails to enforce basic and necessary election protections employed by modern, developed nations” and “has not adequately enforced Federal election requirements.” In particular, the order mandates several steps to prevent noncitizens from voting, despite considerable evidence that immigrants and foreign nationals are not casting ballots in U.S. elections.
Along with the requirement that voters provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship, the executive order directs the Department of Homeland Security to give state and local officials access to systems for verifying citizenship status and to coordinate with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) administrator to “review each state’s publicly available voter registration list.” The U.S. attorney general is also required to “prioritize enforcement” of laws that restrict noncitizens from registering to vote or voting and coordinate with state attorneys general to assist with review and prosecution of such offenders.
Vaughn said she believes the executive order will prompt Morales and the Indiana General Assembly to craft state laws and policies mimicking the executive order’s directives on noncitizens voting. As an example of how receptive state officials are to the myth of noncitizens voting, she pointed to Morales and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita asking the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to verify the citizenship status of nearly 600,000 Indiana voters just weeks before the November 2024 election.
“There are a lot of bad ideas that come out of Washington, D.C., concerning elections that are fully embraced in Indiana and take us in the wrong direction, repeatedly, on this issue,” Vaughn said.
The executive order also contains provisions, according to an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice, that commands the Election Assistance Commission to decertify all states’ voting systems within six months and recertify them under new federal standards, which no voting system on the market currently meets. Moreover the order allows DOGE and Homeland Security officials access to voter information from every state; penalizes states that count mail-in ballots that sent before Election Day but received after the polls have closed; and asks the U.S. attorney general to withhold money from states that do not comply.
In the lawsuit, State of California, et al. v. Trump, et al., 1:25-cv-10810, filed April 3 in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the 19 state attorneys general are challenging the elections executive order. The state officials argue Trump’s order violates the U.S. Constitution by interfering with the states’ sovereignty and constitutional power to regulate federal elections. Also, they contend their states would have to divert time and resources from “vital election priorities” toward implementing, “at breakneck pace,” the mandates in the executive order.
“Even with this effort, the Elections EO sows confusion and sets the stage for chaos in Plaintiff States’ elections systems, together with the threat of disenfranchisement,” the attorneys general asserted.
Republican state Rep. Timothy Wesco, chair of the Indiana House Elections and Apportionment Committee, was not critical of Trump’s executive order, saying state elections have been impacted by federal laws and policies. Still, he maintained there is strength in elections being run at the state level.
“I think from an operational standpoint, (elections) should be absolutely operated at a state and local level, not a federal level,” Wesco said. “But I also realize that there is long-standing legislation at the federal level that impacts how state and local elections are conducted.”
Asked if Indiana needs more federal oversight on elections, the representative sidestepped.
“If the question was, ‘Do we need more federal oversight, period,’ I would say no,” Wesco said.
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
