Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales is threatening legal action if federal agencies following President Joe Biden’s “Bidenbucks” order operate unauthorized election programs in the state. Morales said this is a part of his pushback against federal overreach.
“I already talked to the attorney general, and he has the highest authority in our state. He will obviously enforce that,” Morales said in an interview with The Federalist, adding that election integrity is his “top priority.”
On July 2, Morales sent a letter directing agencies to refrain from conducting taxpayer-funded voter registration and get-out-the-vote activities designed to benefit Democrats. Morales’ Communications Director Lindsey Eaton told The Federalist that he would refer any violations of the order to the attorney general’s office.
“When they start getting involved in elections, whether it’s CISA or the SBA [Small Business Administration] or any other federal government, that’s a no for me,” Morales said. It’s a shift in tone from when the Republican secretary met with the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in May and issued a positive press release touting the meeting and the secretary’s “Collaboration on Election Safety Efforts” with “local, state, and federal agencies.”
‘Not Permitted In Indiana’
Biden issued an executive order in 2021 directing federal agencies to register voters and push get-out-the-vote measures that are calibrated to target left-leaning voters. It also enables the government to work with approved “third party” groups to these ends. When federal agencies carry out this order, they circumvent state
