Trump signs mail-in voting order despite likely legal objections

President Donald Trump, upset with the Senate’s deadlock on the Save America Act, took action via executive order creating a nationwide list of verified voters and restricting mail-in voting, a move that quickly exposed Democrats to legal threats.

“I don’t see how they can counter that,” Trump said at the Oval Office signing ceremony Wednesday night, before admitting “maybe it will be tested.”

“I believe this is perfect.”

Arizona, California and Oregon, states that offer widespread mail-in voting, have vowed to immediately sue the Trump administration; but so can Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, Utah, Vermont, Washington state, Washington DC and Wisconsin.

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“The President wants to limit which Americans can participate in our democracy,” California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom wrote to X.

“We challenge this” added. “See you in court.”

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said the state’s vote-by-mail system is now used by 80% of voters, saying Arizona does not need to tell the federal government who can vote and that it is not necessary to argue that federal data is not always reliable.

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“It is completely wrong for a US president to act as if he is choosing his own voters,” Fontes, a Democrat, told the Associated Press. “That’s not how America works.”

This is another battleground between Trump and blue on the US map ahead of the 2026 midterms. Republicans will struggle to maintain their razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives (217-214 currentlyone independent in the GOP caucus) and the Senate (53-45, two independents in the caucus with Democrats).

“Mail voting fraud is legendary,” Trump said after signing the order in the Oval Office on Wednesday night. “What happened is terrible.

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“I think this will be very helpful in the election.”

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom quickly issued a ‘see you in court’ message following President Donald Trump’s election integrity executive order Tuesday night. (Tayfun Coşkun/Getty Images)

Trump won 30 states outright in 2024, while former Vice President Kamala Harris had 18 (19 when Washington D.C. is included). Maine and Nevada split their Electoral College votes.

Trump won Nevada and Utah, two states where mail-in voting is common. Nevada is a battleground state, while Utah is generally reliably red.

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Among the states Harris won, New Hampshire is the only one that typically requires a specific reason (such as illness or absenteeism) to vote by mail.

“This is a massive and unconstitutional voter suppression effort aimed at giving Trump the authority to create a list of who can vote by mail,” said Marc Elias, a Democratic election lawyer who has been an election integrity attack dog for both former President Joe Biden and Harris. immediately wrote to X.

“We know where this is going: Democrats being targeted for mass disenfranchisement.

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“We will sue and we will win.”

Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias has been suing Donald Trump for years. (David Jolkovski for The Washington Post)

New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, and Minnesota have “Permanent Absentee” lists; When you sign up for these lists, you will automatically be sent a ballot for every future election. No-excuse mail voting is standard in New York, Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Mexico and Delaware.

Any of those states could also object, but Trump has said he’s ready for the legal wrangling.

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“They’ll probably challenge that,” he said. “You get a rogue judge; a lot of rogue judges. Very bad, bad people. Very bad judges. And if so, I hope we win on appeal.”

Trump’s order It directs the Department of Homeland Security, working with the Social Security Administration, to compile lists of eligible voters in each state and seeks to prevent the U.S. Postal Service from delivering absentee ballots to voters who have not been certified by the state. It also demands ballot envelopes with unique tracking bar codes and threatens to withhold federal funds from states and localities that don’t comply.

“This order is not only unconstitutional, it is also unserious,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson told Reuters. he said. “This order will not stand.”

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Legal experts said the decision would likely face immediate constitutional challenges because election administration is largely left to the states, not the president.

“This executive order is clearly unauthorized and illegal,” said Wendy Weiser, vice president of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. he told the Washington Post.

Oregon, Arizona, Maine and Nevada are among the Democratic-led states where top officials have threatened to sue or said they won’t comply, the AP reported:

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oregon: Secretary of State Tobias Read, a Democrat, said, “We do not need decisions from Washington DC.” “My message to the President: See you in court.” Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, also a Democrat, added that the state “will use every legal tool at our disposal to combat this and protect Oregonians’ right to vote.”

Arizona: In addition to his comments above, Fontes said, “We will not allow this.”

Maine: Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, called the order “ridiculously unconstitutional” and said Maine would not comply with it. More than a quarter of Maine voters voted by mail in the 2024 election.

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Nevada: Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, the only Democrat in the state Trump won in 2024, said the decision would burden local election officials and “benefit no one in this country but him.”

The latest order follows Trump’s broader push to reshape election rules from Washington. A. March 2025 administrative order The proposal, which calls for major changes to voter registration and mail-in voting rules, has been largely blocked in court after lawsuits filed by voting rights groups and Democratic state attorneys general.

“The president has no authority to call elections,” Weiser told the Post. “He tried to do something similar a year ago.

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“We and others actually filed a lawsuit. We won. We expect the same result this time.”

Election law experts say Tuesday’s ruling is vulnerable for the same reasons.

David Becker, a former Justice Department lawyer who now directs the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said the Constitution is clear that the president does not control state-run elections.

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Becker wrote on social media that the order was “clearly unconstitutional” and would be blocked immediately, adding that Trump “better sign an EO banning gravity.”

Becker also noted that the Postal Service is governed by a board of directors, which limits the president’s authority to determine what mail it can carry.

“There is no authority on any of this,” Richard Hasen, director of the UCLA Project on Protecting Democracy, told the Post, adding that the decision could not be implemented in time for midterm elections.

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Hasen concluded that this was “just a fantasy”. “That’s why I think it’s not serious.”

The decision also revives concerns about the federal SAVE system, which voting rights advocates have criticized as unreliable and prone to errors that could affect voters.

At least one Republican election official on Tuesday defended the SAVE system while downplaying the potential for widespread voter fraud.

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Robert Sinners, a spokesman for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who has staunchly opposed Trump’s 2020 presidential election integrity investigation, said their advice to the Trump administration strengthened voter verification and emphasized that “the small number of people flagged as potential noncitizens will not be able to vote by mail or in person until they provide proof of citizenship.”

“The executive order will be decided in court, but we have already verified citizenship in Georgia and will continue to do so regardless of the outcome,” Sinners said. he added.

The Brennan Center and other groups have warned that using federal databases to audit state voter rolls could lead to errors, privacy concerns and obstacles for legal voters.

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“The Constitution does not allow the executive branch to take over election administration; that is the job of state legislatures or Congress, and so I don’t think it would go through any judicial hearings,” Fontes said. he said. New York Times.

“So it’s a huge, huge waste of time and it’s getting the Trump administration’s attention.”

Trump vehemently opposes this, although he used mail-in voting last month.

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“Yes, that’s what I did,” Trump responded to a reporter on Thursday. “You know what? Because I’m the president of the United States.”

“And since I’m president of the United States, I voted by mail for the election in Florida because I felt like I needed to be here instead of out in the beautiful sunshine.”

“You know, we have exceptions. mail-in ballots“You know that, right? So if you’re away, you have an exception. If you’re in the military, we have an exception. If you’re on a business trip, we have an exception. If you’re disabled, we have an exception. And if you’re sick, if you’re not feeling well,” Trump said.

“So I was mostly in Washington, D.C., so I used a mail-in ballot.”

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Trump frequently references critical findings from 2005 Carter-Baker Commission, warned of election integrity vulnerabilities in mail-in voting.

Reuters and AP contributed to this report.