Trump signs order directing creation of a national voter list, a move sure to face legal challenges

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump On Tuesday, he signed an executive order to create a nationwide list of verified voters and restrict mail-in voting; It was a move that quickly drew legal threats from Democratic officials in the state as the president called for more restrictions on voting ahead of this year’s midterm elections.

The order, which voting law experts say violates the Constitution by trying to seize election authority from states, is the latest in Trump’s efforts to interfere with how Americans vote based on baseless claims of fraud.

It calls on the Department of Homeland Security, working with the Social Security Administration, to prepare a list of eligible voters in each state, according to the text of the executive order released Tuesday. It also aims to prevent the U.S. Postal Service from sending ballots to those not on each state’s approved list; but the president probably doesn’t have the authority to determine what the Postal Service does.

Trump also wants ballots to have secure envelopes with unique barcodes for tracking, according to the executive order first reported by the Daily Caller.

While signing the order, Trump repeated his false claims about mail-in voting, saying, “Mail voting fraud is legendary. What’s happening is terrible.” “I think this will be very useful in the elections.”

Minutes after Trump signed the order, top election officials in Oregon and Arizona, two states that rely heavily on mail-in voting, vowed to sue. They said Trump was trying to illegally encroach on states’ right to hold elections.

“We don’t need decisions from Washington, D.C.,” said Tobias Read, the Democratic secretary of state in Oregon, which votes entirely by mail. “My message to the President: See you in court.”

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said the state’s vote-by-mail system was designed by Republicans and has provided secure elections for decades. It is now used by 80% of voters.

“Donald Trump is trying to pick the slate of electors he wants in every state with the help of the Social Security Administration,” Fontes, a Democrat, said.

“We won’t let it stay like this,” he added.

Trump has repeatedly lied about the outcome of the 2020 presidential campaign and the integrity of state-run elections, claiming once again Tuesday that he won “three times” and continuing to push accusations of voter fraud. This is a lot of controlinvestigations and courts have been refuted.

Trump’s first election order in March 2025 sought extensive changes on how elections will be conducted across the country. citizenship certificate Requiring a federal voter registration form and requiring mail-in ballots. Delivered to election offices by Election Day. Most of it has been blocked legal challenges brought by voting rights groups and Democratic state attorneys general and unconstitutional usurpation of power this would disenfranchise large groups of voters.

He also said in an interview with a conservative podcaster in February that he wanted to “take over” elections from Democratic-run districts.

David Becker, a former Justice Department lawyer who runs the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said Tuesday’s voting mandate shows he hasn’t learned the lessons of his previous thwarted efforts to gain control over elections.

“The Constitution is very clear; the president has no authority over elections in the states,” Becker said. “As soon as the lawyers reach the courthouse, this place will be blocked.”

Becker also added that the U.S. Postal Service is governed by a board of governors and the president has no authority to say what mail can and cannot be delivered.

“If Trump signs an unconstitutional Executive Order to take over the vote, we will sue,” Marc Elias, a voting rights plaintiff and founder of Democracy Docket, said in a social media post. “I don’t bluff and I usually win.”

Elections in the United States are unique because they are decentralized. Rather than being run by the federal government, it is run by election officials and volunteers in thousands of counties across the country, from small towns to large urban counties with more voters than some states have. The Constitution’s so-called “Election Clause” gives Congress the authority to “make or alter” election regulations, at least for federal office, but makes no mention of any presidential authority over election administration.

The Trump administration has launched a widespread campaign that it says targets allegations of voter fraud that have been the subject of false claims by Trump and his allies for years. The Justice Department has been demanding detailed voter registration lists from states for months in what it describes as an effort to ensure election security, and has filed suit after state officials refused to provide them.

In January, the FBI seized ballots from the election office of Georgia, a state at the center of right-wing conspiracy theories about Trump’s 2020 election loss. And Attorney General Pam Bondi recently appointed Daniel Bishop, the top federal prosecutor for the Middle District of North Carolina, as a “special counsel” with authority to investigate and prosecute cases “related to the integrity of federal elections” nationwide, according to a copy of the order.

The Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE system for verifying citizenship and immigration status has come under scrutiny from voting rights groups for producing inaccurate results from unreliable data sets and privacy concerns. One example of this is that states can bulk search the system with Social Security numbers, but few states collect full Social Security numbers as part of voter registration, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

The Trump administration implemented an overhaul of the system last year but still faces legal challenges over claims that reliance on the system could lead to errors in determining citizenship status and influence eligible voters.

The president is a vocal critic of mail-in voting and claims the practice is rife with fraud as he pushes lawmakers to pass a sweeping election bill that would restrict it. Trump’s accusations of widespread fraud are baseless; A 2025 report from the Brookings Institution found that vote-by-mail fraud occurred in just 0.000043% of total mail ballots cast, or about four cases per 10 million mail ballots.

Trump himself also cast a ballot by mail. last week last week in local Florida elections. The White House has said Trump opposes universal mail-in voting instead of individual voters who may need an alternative voting method for reasons such as travel or military deployment.

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Swenson reported from New York and Cooper from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington and Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.