President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order directing the creation of a national list of verified eligible voters and imposing new restrictions on mail-in voting. The move, which the White House says is meant to combat voter fraud, drew swift legal threats from Democratic state officials who argue it unconstitutionally usurps states' authority to run elections.
Key Provisions of the Executive Order
The order calls on the Department of Homeland Security, working with the Social Security Administration, to compile a list of eligible voters for each state. It also seeks to bar the U.S. Postal Service from delivering absentee ballots to individuals not on each state's approved list. Additionally, Trump is requiring ballots to have secure envelopes with unique barcodes for tracking, and federal funding could be withheld from noncompliant states and localities.
During the signing, Trump repeated unfounded claims about mail-in voting, stating, "The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary. It's horrible what's going on." He asserted that the order would improve election integrity, despite numerous audits, investigations, and courts having found no evidence of widespread fraud.
Legal and Constitutional Challenges
Voting law experts and state officials quickly condemned the order as unconstitutional. The U.S. Constitution's Elections Clause grants Congress the power to regulate federal elections but does not explicitly empower the president to administer elections—a role traditionally left to states. David Becker, a former Justice Department lawyer who leads the Center for Election Innovation and Research, noted that the president has no authority to dictate what mail the Postal Service can deliver, as the USPS operates under an independent board of governors.
Within minutes of the signing, top elections officials in Oregon, Arizona, Maine, and Nevada vowed to sue. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said, "It is just wrongheaded for a president of the United States to pretend like he can pick his own voters. That's just not how America works." Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows called the order "laughably unconstitutional," while Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar argued it would cripple local election officials and silence voters relying on mail ballots.
This is not Trump's first attempt to intervene in election administration. A March 2025 executive order requiring documentary proof of citizenship for federal voter registration and mandating that mail ballots be received by Election Day has been largely blocked by courts. The administration has also demanded detailed voter registration lists from states, filing lawsuits when officials refused to comply.
Reactions from Republican Officials
Some Republican election officials expressed support for parts of the order, particularly the use of the DHS's SAVE system for verifying citizenship. Robert Sinners, a spokesperson for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, said their state already verifies citizenship and will continue to do so regardless of the legal outcome. However, even supporters acknowledge that the system has flaws—the Brennan Center for Justice has noted that few states collect full Social Security numbers for voter registration, limiting the utility of bulk searches.
Trump himself has used mail-in voting, including in recent local Florida elections. The White House has clarified that the president opposes universal mail-in voting, not individual use for legitimate reasons such as military deployment or travel.
Historical Context and Broader Implications
U.S. elections are decentralized, run by thousands of local jurisdictions rather than the federal government. The Constitution's Elections Clause gives Congress the power to "make or alter" regulations for federal office, but presidential authority over election administration is not specified. Legal experts say Trump's order represents an unprecedented federal intrusion into state-run processes.
The order is part of a broader campaign targeting alleged voter fraud. The Justice Department has hired a "special attorney" with nationwide authority to investigate and prosecute election integrity cases. The FBI recently seized ballots from a Georgia county that has been central to right-wing conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
Voting rights groups have raised concerns about the DHS's SAVE system, which they say produces unreliable results due to flawed data sets and privacy risks. The Brookings Institution found that mail voting fraud occurs in only 0.000043% of total mail ballots cast—about four cases per 10 million. Despite this, Trump continues to push for restrictive voting measures that critics say are designed to disenfranchise minority and low-income voters.
As legal challenges mount, the future of the executive order remains uncertain. Several Democratic state attorneys general have announced they will seek injunctions, and the case is expected to reach the Supreme Court. The outcome could redefine the balance of power between the federal government and states in election administration, with potentially far-reaching effects on voting access in the 2026 midterm elections.
Source: WPXI News