Government watchdog groups have called Trump’s move an act of executive overreach that usurps Congress’ constitutional power to allocate federal funds.

“Americans expect and deserve more from their President in the midst of a pandemic and an economic crisis,” Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, said in a statement. “Unwilling and unable to negotiate with Congress to deliver a relief package to a nation reeling from COVID-19, President Trump resorted to unconstitutional half measures that will do little to...

Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for nonprofit group Common Cause, testified at the hearing that President Trump's comments about election security have swayed public perception.

"We have seen already that the president's rhetoric is affecting the confidence that voters have both in vote-by-mail particularly and also in elections in general," Albert said.

Decisions over how the general election will be conducted need to be sorted out now, said Sylvia Albert, the director of Voting and Elections at Common Cause, a voting rights group.

“The key is not waiting for November,” Ms. Albert said. “The point of those lawsuits is to establish the policies and procedures that are going to be used in November so there isn’t going to be confusion on the day of the election.”

“These steps are good but nowhere near good enough,” said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of the government watchdog group, Common Cause Texas. “Other states are doing so much more while Governor Abbott is doing literally the least he can. We need swift and decisive action from either the Governor or Secretary of State to avoid a complete meltdown at the polls in November.”

Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump has attacked democratic institutions and undermined independent agencies. Now, as millions of voters are relying on the Postal Service to support our elections during the coronavirus pandemic, Trump is politicizing another once-nonpartisan government agency. Having a political ally with ethical and competence questions like DeJoy lead the agency potentially puts November's election at risk.

Just to be sure, though, we asked a couple of campaign law experts how much Mr. West’s filings meant.

“Very little,” said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause.

Candidates are not required to register with the F.E.C. unless they have raised or spent more than $5,000, but “there is nothing that prohibits someone who hasn’t raised or spent that amount of money from filing,” Mr. Ryan said. “That’s why you see hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of not serious candidates,...

“The big issue we’ve seen is poll workers saying, ‘We don’t want to work this election because the governor isn’t requiring masks at polling locations,’” said Anthony Gutierrez, the executive director of Common Cause Texas, another voting rights group.

“If things don’t change drastically, we’re going to have huge problems in November,” Anthony Gutierrez, the executive director of the good-government group Common Cause Texas.

Heather Ferguson, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico, said the problems seen in the primary are reflective of a long history of racism.

“Democracy has been failing in Indigenous communities for such a long time, and this is yet another example of how they have been disenfranchised and because of how all of these other systems are not in place, it continues to cause trauma and harm to these communities,” she said.

The blizzard of litigation — more suits have been pressed by voting rights advocates like Common Cause and the Brennan Center for Justice, and conservative groups like True the Vote and the Honest Elections Project — reflects the high stakes in 2020. Having seen the 2016 presidential race defined by harrowingly close margins in swing states, strategists are scrambling for the advantages conferred by even minor clauses in election rules. ...

Voting rights advocates note that some states vote almost entirely by mail with...