An election worker sorts mail-in ballots in Reno, Nev., on Nov. 5, 2024.
Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP
On Tuesday, President Trump intensified his campaign to reform U.S. elections by signing an executive order. This order aims to compile lists of U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state and directs the U.S. Postal Service to send mail ballots only to verified voters.
Addressing reporters in the Oval Office, Trump asserted that the order is legally “foolproof.” However, election experts have criticized it as unconstitutional. Voting rights advocates and Democratic state officials have already vowed to file lawsuits to prevent its implementation.
An earlier executive order on elections, signed around a year ago, was halted by federal judges who ruled that the president did not have the constitutional authority to dictate voting policy.
According to the Constitution, the “Times, Places and Manner” of federal elections are set by individual states, with Congress having the power to make changes.
“This Executive Order is a repugnant overreach by the federal government and highlights the Trump Administration’s ignorance regarding election administration,” said Adrian Fontes, Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, in a statement on Tuesday. “We will challenge this order in court and will confront the federal government,” he added.
Arizona is one of over two dozen states that Trump’s Department of Justice has taken legal action against to gain access to sensitive voter data.
The Trump administration argues that the data is necessary to enforce states’ voter list maintenance. However, federal judges in three states have dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuits in those states.
In another legal case, a DOJ official acknowledged in court last week that the department intends to share voter data with the Department of Homeland Security to run it through the SAVE system to identify noncitizens.
NPR has reported that some U.S. citizens have also been mistakenly flagged by SAVE.
How the executive order seeks to change voting
Trump has persistently, though baselessly, claimed widespread illegal voting by noncitizens and fraud related to mail ballots.
The new executive order, initially reported by The Daily Caller, targets these issues.
It instructs the Department of Homeland Security, in collaboration with the Social Security Administration, to “compile and send to the chief election official of each state a list of individuals confirmed to be U.S. citizens who will be above the age of 18 at the time of an upcoming federal election and who maintain a residence in the subject state.”
The order also mandates the USPS to send ballots only to individuals listed on a State-specific Mail-in and Absentee Participation List, ensuring that only eligible absentee or mail-in voters receive ballots, as detailed in a White House fact sheet.
The executive order claims that more measures are needed to secure mail voting, a method Trump himself has used, including last week, despite having criticized it for years. During the 2024 general election, nearly one-third of voters used mail ballots.
The Postal Service is also instructed to review the design of mail ballot envelopes to ensure “the integrity of federal elections,” according to the order.
Together, these provisions represent a significant shift in how mail ballot programs are currently managed in U.S. elections, which are primarily handled by state and local officials.
The Brennan Center for Justice, which promotes expanded voting access and has sued to block Trump’s 2025 election executive order, remarked, “Our government’s citizenship lists are incomplete and inaccurate. The United States Postal Service is overburdened and inadequate. This combines a car crash with a train wreck.”
Rick Hasen, an election law expert at UCLA, wrote on his blog that the order is likely unconstitutional. He also noted that “the timing here makes this virtually impossible to implement in time for November’s elections. … It seems highly unlikely any of this could be implemented for 2026, even if it were not blocked by courts.”
The executive order comes as Trump urges Republicans in Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, a comprehensive election reform bill that would impose new voter identification and documentation requirements.
This bill remains stalled in the Senate due to Democratic opposition and the legislative filibuster.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is expected to rule this year on whether Mississippi should be permitted to count mail ballots postmarked by Election Day but received afterward.
This legal challenge, which could impact mail voting across the country, was filed by the Republican National Committee and Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
