Trump Signs Executive Order to Create a National Voter List and Restrict Mail-In Ballots

What Happened

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday evening directing the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to compile a state-by-state list of verified eligible U.S. citizens and transmit it to each state's chief election official before the November 2026 midterm elections.

The order also instructs the U.S. Postal Service to restrict the transmission of mail-in and absentee ballots only to individuals whose names appear on those federal-compiled lists. All mail ballots, the order states, must be placed in "secure ballot envelopes" marked as Official Election Mail with unique Intelligent Mail barcodes enabling real-time tracking.

Trump signed the order in the Oval Office, repeating his longstanding but repeatedly debunked allegations that mail-in voting is rife with fraud. "The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary. It's horrible what's going on," he said. "I think this will help a lot with elections."

The order was first reported by The Daily Caller before Trump's signing, and confirmed simultaneously by the Associated Press, NPR, and CNBC.

What the Order Actually Directs

The executive order contains several distinct directives, according to the White House fact sheet and the order's text:

• National voter eligibility list: DHS, working with the Social Security Administration, must compile lists of confirmed U.S. citizens aged 18 or older residing in each state, and transmit those lists to each state's chief election official. States would then be expected to use them as a reference for mail ballot distribution.
• Postal Service mail ballot restrictions: The USPS would be required to transmit mail-in ballots only to individuals enrolled on a "State-specific Mail-in and Absentee Participation List" — meaning persons verified by the federal government, not just registered by state elections authorities.
• Mandatory barcodes: All ballots transmitted by mail must be placed in secure Official Election Mail envelopes with unique Intelligent Mail barcodes to enable tracking and confirmation.
• Attorney General enforcement: The order directs the Attorney General to prioritize investigation and prosecution of election officials or entities that "issue or distribute Federal ballots to ineligible voters," and to withhold federal funds from states that do not comply.

The Constitutional Problem

Election law experts across the political spectrum said within hours of signing that the order cannot withstand legal challenge — and that Trump likely knows it.

The U.S. Constitution's Elections Clause gives Congress, not the president, the power to "make or alter" election regulations for federal offices. States retain primary authority to set their own voting rules. No clause of the Constitution grants the executive branch authority to administer elections.

"The Constitution is very clear — the president has no power over elections in the states," said David Becker, a former Justice Department lawyer who leads the Center for Election Innovation and Research. "This will be blocked as soon as lawyers can get to the courthouse."

This is not the first time Trump has tried this approach. His March 2025 executive order on elections — which required documentary proof of citizenship on federal voter registration forms and mandated that mail ballots be received by Election Day — has been largely blocked by federal courts on constitutional grounds. Multiple judges ruled that it represented an unlawful presidential seizure of powers reserved to states and Congress.

The Brennan Center for Justice, which participated in litigation against the earlier order, said Tuesday: "The president has no lawful authority to write the rules that govern our elections."

Marc Elias, founder of Democracy Docket and one of the country's foremost voting rights litigators, posted on social media: "If Trump signs an unconstitutional Executive Order to take over voting, we will sue. I don't bluff and I usually win."

Immediate Legal Challenges

State officials pledged litigation before the ink dried.

Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read said his state — which conducts its elections entirely by mail and has done so since 2000 — would sue immediately. "We don't need decrees from Washington, D.C.," Read said. "My message to the President: We'll see you in court."

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, whose state's vote-by-mail system was originally designed by Republicans and is now used by approximately 80% of Arizona voters, said: "Donald Trump is attempting to pick his desired list of voters in each state with the Social Security Administration's help. We will not let this stand."

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell announced her office was "reviewing this order and will take appropriate legal action to ensure that every eligible voter in Massachusetts can vote and have their vote counted."

The NAACP called the order "unconstitutional" and "unserious." President Derrick Johnson said: "His attempts to silence us will only make us louder — with our voices and our votes."

The Problem With the DHS SAVE System

The executive order relies heavily on DHS's Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database — the same system already used by the Justice Department to demand voter data from states in more than two dozen active lawsuits.

The SAVE system has documented accuracy problems. The Brennan Center for Justice has noted that many states do not collect full Social Security numbers as part of voter registration, making bulk cross-referencing error-prone. NPR has separately reported that U.S. citizens have been inaccurately flagged by SAVE as potential noncitizens.

The Trump administration undertook an overhaul of SAVE in 2025, but it continues to face legal challenges. Federal judges in three states have already dismissed Justice Department lawsuits seeking voter data to run through SAVE. In a separate case last week, a DOJ official admitted in court that the department intends to share voter data obtained from states with DHS for SAVE processing — a disclosure that alarmed civil liberties attorneys.

The Mail Voting Fraud Claim vs. the Data

Trump's executive order rests on the claim that mail voting is fraudulent at a significant scale. Independent research consistently finds the opposite.

A 2025 report by the Brookings Institution found that mail voting fraud occurred in approximately 0.000043% of total mail ballots cast — roughly four confirmed fraud cases per 10 million mail ballots. The report examined data from all 50 states.

Numerous audits, court proceedings, and state investigations — including in battleground states after the 2020 election — reached consistent conclusions: widespread mail ballot fraud is not supported by evidence. More than 60 courts, including those with Trump-appointed judges, rejected fraud claims after the 2020 election. Election officials in states Trump carried, including Georgia, Arizona, and Wisconsin, certified their results.

Trump himself voted by mail in local Florida elections last week. The White House has said Trump opposes "universal" mail-in voting, not individual voters who use mail ballots for specific reasons such as travel or military deployment.

In the 2024 general election, approximately one-third of all American voters cast their ballots by mail.

How This Fits the Broader Pattern

Tuesday's executive order is the latest in an accelerating series of federal actions aimed at reshaping how Americans vote before the November 2026 midterms.

• In January 2026, the FBI seized ballots from a Georgia county election office that has featured prominently in right-wing election conspiracy theories.
• The Justice Department has been demanding detailed voter registration lists from states across the country, filing more than two dozen lawsuits when states refused to comply. Federal judges have dismissed those lawsuits in at least three states.
• Attorney General Pam Bondi recently named a special attorney empowered to investigate and prosecute election-integrity cases across the country.
• The SAVE America Act — which would require documentary proof of citizenship to register and photo ID to vote — passed the House in February 2026 but remains blocked in the Senate by the Democratic filibuster.

Trump told Republican lawmakers this year that they would lose the November midterms unless Congress passed the SAVE America Act and cracked down on mail voting. The Senate has so far declined to bring the bill to a vote under the current rules.

Tuesday's executive order reads, in part, as a workaround: an attempt to impose through presidential power what the Senate cannot or will not pass legislatively. Legal experts say the attempt will fail in court, as its predecessor did — but the legal battle itself could take months to resolve, potentially close to the November election calendar.

What Happens Next

Litigation is virtually certain to begin within days, if not hours. Given the precedent established by courts blocking the 2025 voting executive order, legal experts say a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction is likely to be granted at the district court level relatively quickly.

The Supreme Court is separately expected to rule this term on whether states must count mail ballots postmarked by Election Day but received after — a case brought by the Republican National Committee that could have broader implications for mail voting nationally.

Trump called the order "foolproof" and said it "may or may not" face legal challenge. Courts and election officials across the political spectrum disagree.