CHARLESTON — West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner and U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney have teamed up to try to stop an executive order from President Joe Biden involving federal agencies in state voter registration efforts.

Mooney, R-W.Va., introduced a bill Wednesday that would override Executive Order 14019, issued last year by the Biden administration with the goal of promoting access to voting.

The executive order requires the heads of federal agencies to develop strategic plans for how each agency will help increase voter registration and participation. The plans are to be submitted to the White House for review.

“Executive departments and agencies … should partner with State, local, Tribal, and territorial election officials to protect and promote the exercise of the right to vote, eliminate discrimination and other barriers to voting, and expand access to voter registration and accurate election information,” the executive order reads. “It is our duty to ensure that registering to vote and the act of voting be made simple and easy for all those eligible to do so.”

According to the executive order, voter registration plans should include ways to provide information on how to register to vote, request absentee ballots, and how to vote in upcoming elections; ways to streamline access to state and local online voter registration systems, including using the federal vote.gov website; distributing vote-by-mail forms and voter registration applications; and working with third-party organizations to provide various voter registration services at federal agencies.

Both Mooney and Warner believe the Biden executive order interferes with state efforts for voter registration and election management.

“The federal government has no business forcing itself into the West Virginia’s voter registration process,” Mooney said in a statement. “I am proud to introduce this bill in Congress to return sole authority on this issue to the states, where it belongs.”

“State legislatures are the appropriate places to have these discussions,” Warner said. “This Executive Order is an improper federal overreach.”

On May 4, with less than a week before the May 10 primary elections, Warner penned a letter asking Biden to rescind the executive order. Warner accused the Biden administration of creating confusing and duplicative services already offered to state residents by the Secretary of State’s Office and local county clerks.

“This misplaced initiative will ultimately duplicate and complicate existing state programs, and without a state requesting such assistance, the directive will be unlawful and unnecessary,” Warner said. “These actions from the Biden Administration are not based in our Constitution nor are these federal agencies Congressionally authorized to engage in voter registration activity by federal law.”

“The Biden Administration’s Executive Order really is a directive to put plans into place through which the federal government duplicates state voter registration activities and could further undermine confidence in our elections,” Mooney agreed.

In April, the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration after the White House failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request seeking documents on how the executive order was developed. Specifically, FGA is trying to determine what third-party groups were involved with crafting the executive order.

“FOIA requests are meant to provide Americans with transparency and reassurance that governing agencies using taxpayer dollars are acting thoughtfully, lawfully, and in the best interest of the American people,” said Stewart Whitson, Legal Director at FGA. “With the mid-term elections mere months away, the American people have a right to know the full details of this unprecedented effort by the president before it is too late. FGA will not rest until we get the American people the answers they deserve. If we cannot get those answers through FOIA requests, we will use the power of the courts instead.”