WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday creating a nationwide certified list of eligible voters and limiting mail-in voting, a move that quickly drew legal threats from state Democratic officials ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
Voting law experts say the order is an unconstitutional attempt to seize states’ power to hold elections and is Trump’s latest effort to interfere with how Americans vote based on his false claims of fraud. The president, who has repeatedly lied about the results of the 2020 presidential race and the integrity of the state-run election, again claimed on Tuesday that he had won “three times” and cited claims of voter fraud that have been debunked by numerous audits, investigations and courts.
The order signed Tuesday requires the Department of Homeland Security to work with the Social Security Administration to create a list of eligible voters in each state. It also seeks to ban the U.S. Postal Service from sending absentee ballots to people who are not on states’ approved lists.
Trump also called for ballots to come in secure envelopes with unique bar codes for easier tracking, according to the executive order first reported by The Daily Caller. States and localities that don’t comply could have federal funds withheld.
Trump reiterated his false claims about mail-in ballots as he signed the order, saying: “The cheating on mail-in ballots is legendary. What’s happening now is horrific.” “I think it will help the election a lot.”
Democracies are quick to threaten lawsuits if they don’t comply
Within minutes of Trump signing the order, top election officials in Oregon and Arizona, two states that rely heavily on mail-in ballots, pledged to sue, arguing the president illegally violated states’ rights to hold elections.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said the state’s mail-in voting system was designed by Republicans and is currently used by 80% of voters. He said Arizona doesn’t need the federal government to tell it who can vote, and federal data isn’t always reliable.
“It’s wrong for the president of the United States to pretend that he can choose his own voters,” Fontes told The Associated Press. “That’s not how America works.”
Maine Secretary of State Shena Bellows told The Associated Press that the order is “ridiculously unconstitutional” and said the state will not comply. More than a quarter of Maine voters have cast a mail-in ballot in the 2024 election.
Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar said Trump’s order would undermine local election officials tasked with enforcing it and silence voters who count on mail-in ballots.
“It’s not good for anyone in this country but himself,” Aguilar said.
Legal experts point to other potential flaws with the order. David Becker, a former Justice Department lawyer who leads the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said the Postal Service is governed by a board of governors and the president does not have the authority to tell it what mail can and cannot be delivered.
A spokesman for the Postal Service said Tuesday that the agency will review the order. Trump has sought to bring the independent agency under more presidential control, proposing to fold it into the Commerce Department — whose secretary, Howard Lutnick, attended Tuesday’s signing ceremony.
Trump has long tried to interfere in state elections
Trump’s March 2025 election executive order sought sweeping changes to how elections are conducted, including a requirement to add proof of citizenship documents to federal voter registration forms and require election offices to receive mail-in ballots by Election Day. Much of it has been blocked by legal challenges from voting rights groups and Democratic state attorneys general, who claim it is an unconstitutional power grab that would disenfranchise large numbers of voters.
He also told a conservative podcaster in February that he wanted to “take over” elections in Democratic-run districts.
American elections are unique in that they are not centralized. These elections are not administered by the federal government but are conducted by election officials and volunteers in thousands of jurisdictions across the country, ranging from small towns to sprawling urban counties with more voters than the population of some states. The Constitution’s Elections Clause gives Congress the power to “make or change” election regulations, at least for federal offices, but it makes no mention of the president’s authority over election administration.
“This is Donald Trump turning the Department of Homeland Security into a department that controls the homeland,” said Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
The Trump administration has launched a broad campaign it says is aimed at targeting claims of voter fraud that Trump and his allies have falsely alleged for years. The Justice Department has for months demanded detailed voter registration lists from states, allegedly to ensure election security, and filed lawsuits when state officials refused to hand over the lists.
The FBI in January seized ballots from elections offices in a Georgia county that has been at the center of right-wing conspiracy theories surrounding Trump’s 2020 election loss. Attorney General Pam Bondi recently appointed a “special prosecutor” with authority to investigate and prosecute cases nationwide “related to the integrity of federal elections,” according to a copy of the order.
Voting rights groups raise concerns about current verification system
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE system, used to verify citizenship and immigration status, has come under scrutiny for flawed results produced by unreliable data sets and privacy concerns. One example is that states can conduct bulk searches of the system using Social Security numbers, but few states collect complete Social Security numbers as part of voter registration, the Brennan Center for Justice said.
The Trump administration overhauled the system last year but continues to face legal challenges alleging that its reliance could lead to errors in identifying citizens and impact eligible voters.
At least one Republican election official defended the SAVE system on Tuesday while downplaying the possibility of widespread voter fraud.
Robert Sinners, a spokesman for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, said their recommendations to the Trump administration strengthened voter verification and emphasized that “a small number of people flagged as potential non-citizens cannot vote by mail or in person until they provide proof of citizenship.”
“The executive order will be decided in court, but in Georgia we have verified citizenship and we will continue to do so regardless of the outcome,” Sinners added.
The president has been an outspoken critic of mail-in voting, claiming the practice is rife with fraud, and he has urged lawmakers to pass a far-reaching election bill to crack down on mail-in voting. A 2025 Brookings Institution report found that mail-in ballot fraud only accounted for 0.000043% of total mail-in ballots, or about 4 cases for every 10 million votes cast.
Trump himself has used mail-in ballots, most recently in Florida’s local elections last week. The White House has said Trump opposes universal mail-in voting but not individual voters who may need alternative voting methods for reasons such as travel or military deployment.
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Swenson reported from New York and Cooper reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn., and Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.