Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order seeking to restrict mail-in voting and compile a national voter list in a move that is unprecedented and likely unconstitutional.
The order directs the administration to establish a federal list of confirmed citizens that can legally vote in each state, and orders the postal service to send mail-in ballots only to those on the list. During a press conference at the White House, Trump said the administration would like to require voter ID and proof of citizenship, and repeated falsehoods about mail-in voting.
Trump has long attacked voting by mail and promoted misinformation about the practice, describing it as a scam that creates fraud in elections. Despite that, he has voted by mail himself, including in a recent special election in Florida.
What does Trump’s new executive order set out to do?
The action, which the president has framed as an effort to enhance “election integrity”, directs the Department of Homeland Security to work with the Social Security Administration to create a national voter list and share that with states.
It also directs the postmaster general to require all mail-in and absentee ballots to be placed in “secure ballot envelopes” with official markings, and the postal service to send mail-in ballots only to those on the list, and orders the attorney general to withhold federal funds from “non-compliant” states and cities. Under the order, the attorney general is also supposed to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of election officials and others who distribute federal ballots to ineligible voters.
Voting rights advocates and Democrats, however, say the order is an unlawful voter suppression effort intended to limit voting ahead of the midterms.
“Trump’s attack on [voting] by mail isn’t about integrity – quite the opposite. He knows vote by mail protects against all the well-known election-day voter-suppression tactics,” said Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, which conducts elections entirely by mail.
“This is all part of his effort to rig the upcoming November election. We can’t let him succeed. Save our Republic!”
Does Trump have the authority to restrict mail-in voting?
Experts have described the executive order, which would create a national voter registry and restrict the use of mail-in ballots, as unconstitutional and unlikely to stand up to legal challenges.
The president does not have legal authority over elections and mail-in voting. The US constitution permits states to set their own rules for elections. Only Congress can enact changes to US policy on federal elections. And federal courts blocked a previous order from Trump that sought to enact citizenship requirements on federal voter registration documents.
Multiple voting rights groups and Democratic lawmakers have spoken against the order.
“The president has signed an executive order on mail voting. He has no lawful authority to write the rules that govern our elections. He tried a year ago; we sued him; we won. A year later, he has tried again. He can expect the same result,” the Brennan Center said.
“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.”
Can Trump force the US Postal Service to comply with this?
Legal experts noted the potential flaw in getting the postal service to cooperate. David Becker, a former justice department lawyer who leads the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said the USPS is run by a board of governors, and the president has no power to tell it what mail it can and cannot deliver.
A spokesperson said the agency would 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, was on hand for Tuesday’s signing.
How common is voting by mail – and how rare is fraud?
Voting by mail is popular across the US, utilized by tens of millions of Americans, including Trump himself. Despite his years-long vendetta against mail-in voting, and threats to eliminate it entirely, he voted by mail in a special election in Florida earlier this month.
Almost a third Americans voted by mail in 2024, according to the States United Democracy Center. Although people of all demographics in rural, suburban and urban areas vote by mail, the center notes, it was particularly popular among white voters, older voters and US military members.
Trump and other Republicans have for years promoted falsehoods about the security of US elections, and argued that voting by mail has led to rampant fraud and “cheating”. Mail-voting fraud is exceedingly rare, data shows. According to a report from the Brookings Institition, such cases account for 0.000043% of total mail ballots cast, which amounts to roughly four cases out of every 10 million votes.
Why is Trump doing this?
Trump has long tried to interfere with state-run elections. A March 2025 election executive order sought sweeping changes of how elections are run, including adding a documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form and requiring mailed ballots to be received at election offices by election day.
Much of Trump’s effort has been blocked through legal challenges brought by voting rights groups and Democratic state attorneys general who allege it is an unconstitutional power-grab that would disenfranchise large groups of voters.
Trump also told a conservative podcaster in February that he wants to “take over” elections from Democratic-run areas.
US elections are unique because they are not centralized. Rather than being run by the federal government, they are conducted by election officials and volunteers in thousands of jurisdictions across the country, from tiny townships to sprawling urban counties with more voters than some states have people. The constitution’s elections clause gives Congress the power to “make or alter” election regulations, at least for federal office, but it does not mention presidential authority over election administration.
“This is Donald Trump turning the Department of Homeland Security into the department of controlling the homeland,” said Maya Wiley, president and chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
The Trump administration has launched a widespread campaign it says is designed to target alleged voter fraud that for years have been the subject of false claims from Trump and his allies. The justice department has been demanding detailed voter registration lists from states in what it has described as an effort to ensure the security of elections, and has sued when state officials have refused to hand them over.
