(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – Nine states, including Iowa, are challenging an executive order by the Biden administration, that would enlist federal agencies to help register residents to vote, and those states say the order undermines their power to control elections, calling it federally subsidized program aimed at boosting Democratic and left-leaning blocs. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen filed the federal lawsuit in court in Wichita, Kansas. The nine states are Montana, Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Carolina. The heart of the lawsuit is Executive Order 14019, which was issued on March 10, 2021.

The states challenging the executive order say Biden converts various federal agencies, turning them in part into “a voter registration organization” illegally. The attorneys general say that elections, including voter registration, are solely the province of states, guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Moreover, the states said that it’s an example of the federal government trying to usurp the sovereignty of the states, and giving the states no other choice than to resort to federal court. The lawsuit said the states were never invited into the process, never allowed to comment, and they accuse the Biden administration of hiding the plans.

The lawsuit lists a number of federal agencies as defendants, including the U.S. Treasury, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of The Interior, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Department of Education. The lawsuit also claims that the National Voter Registration Act means that federal agencies cannot stand in the way of citizens voting, but it also said that voter registration activity is left to the states, and Biden’s order oversteps its authority.

The 41-page suit outlines a number of ways the executive order commands the federal agencies to help bolster the efforts to register voters. The lawsuit said the order allows the Department of Education to allow federal work study funds to “support voter registration” activities. The states also said that encouraging a variety of different agencies without proper training put the elections at risk of fraud.

The states conclude the lawsuit by saying that the plans in the executive order weren’t motivated to help resident register to vote, rather they are part of a Democrat plan.