Trump signs order directing creation of a national voter list, a move
already facing lawsuit threats
[April 01, 2026]
By SEUNG MIN KIM, ALI SWENSON, MATT BROWN and JONATHAN J.
COOPER
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive
order to create a nationwide list of verified eligible voters and to
restrict mail-in voting, a move that swiftly drew legal threats from
state Democratic officials ahead of this year's midterm elections.
The order, which voting law experts say violates the Constitution by
attempting to seize states' power to run elections, is the latest in a
torrent of efforts from Trump to interfere with the way Americans vote
based on his false allegations of fraud. The president has repeatedly
lied about the outcome of the 2020 presidential campaign and the
integrity of state-run elections, asserting again Tuesday that he won
“three times” and citing accusations of voter fraud that numerous
audits, investigations and courts have debunked.
The order signed Tuesday calls on the Department of Homeland Security,
working in conjunction with the Social Security Administration, to make
the list of eligible voters in each state. It also seeks to bar the U.S.
Postal Service from sending absentee ballots to those not on each
state’s approved list.
Trump is also calling for ballots to have secure envelopes with unique
barcodes for tracking, according to the executive order, which was first
reported by the Daily Caller. Federal funding could be withheld from
states and localities that don’t comply.
“The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary. It's horrible what's going
on,” Trump said, repeating his false allegations about mail ballots as
he signed the order. “I think this will help a lot with elections.”
Democratic states quickly threaten lawsuits, non-compliance
Within minutes of Trump signing the order, top elections officials in
Oregon and Arizona, two states that rely heavily on mail ballots,
pledged to sue, arguing that the president was illegally encroaching on
the right of states to run elections.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said the state’s vote-by-mail
system was designed by Republicans and is now used by 80% of voters.
Arizona doesn’t need the federal government to tell it who can vote, and
federal data isn't always reliable, he said.
“It is just wrongheaded for a president of the United States to pretend
like he can pick his own voters,” Fontes told The Associated Press.
“That’s just not how America works.”
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows told the AP that the order was
“laughably unconstitutional” and said her state would not comply. More
than a quarter of Maine voters cast mail-in ballots in the 2024
election.
Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar said Trump’s order would
cripple local election officials charged with implementing it and
silence voters counting on casting a mail ballot.
“It doesn’t benefit anybody in this country except himself,” Aguilar
said.
Legal experts noted 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 run by a board of
governors, and the president has no power to tell it what mail it can
and cannot deliver.
A spokesperson for USPS said Tuesday the agency will review the order.
Trump has sought to bring the independent agency under more presidential
control, proposing to fold it under the Commerce Department — whose
secretary, Howard Lutnick, was on hand for Tuesday’s signing.
Trump has long tried to interfere with state-run elections
Trump’s March 2025 election executive order sought sweeping changes to
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 it has been blocked through legal challenges
brought by voting rights groups and Democratic state attorneys general
who allege it’s an unconstitutional power grab that would disenfranchise
large groups of voters.
He also told a conservative podcaster in February that he wants to “take
over” elections from Democratic-run areas.
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President Donald Trump holds papers in the Oval Office of the White
House before signing an executive order Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in
Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
U.S. elections are unique because they are not centralized. Rather
than being run by the federal government, they’re 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 doesn’t
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 CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human
Rights.
The Trump administration has launched a widespread campaign it says
is meant to target allegations of voter fraud that for years have
been the subject of false claims from Trump and his allies. The
Justice Department for months 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.
The FBI in January seized ballots from the election office of a
Georgia county that has been central to right-wing conspiracy
theories over Trump’s 2020 election loss. And Attorney General Pam
Bondi recently named a “special attorney” with the power to
investigate and prosecute cases across the country “relating to the
integrity of federal elections,” according to a copy of the order.
Voting rights groups raise concerns about current verification
system
The Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE system for verifying
citizenship and immigration status has come under scrutiny for
producing flawed results from unreliable data sets, as well as over
privacy concerns. One example is that states can conduct bulk
searches of 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 undertook an overhaul of the system last
year, but it still faces legal challenges alleging that reliance on
the system can lead to errors in identifying citizenship status and
affect eligible voters.
At least one Republican elections official on Tuesday defended the
SAVE system while downplaying the potential of widespread voter
fraud.
Robert Sinners, a spokesperson for Georgia Secretary of State Brad
Raffensperger, said their recommendations to the Trump
administration have strengthened voter verification and stressed
that "the small number 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
already verify citizenship and will continue to do so regardless of
the outcome,” Sinners added.
The president is a vocal critic of mail-in voting, alleging that the
practice is rife with fraud as he pushes lawmakers to pass a
far-reaching elections bill that would clamp down on it. A 2025
report by the Brookings Institution found that mail voting fraud
occurred in only 0.000043% of total mail ballots cast, or about four
cases per 10 million.
Trump himself has also used mail ballots, most recently last week in
local Florida elections. The White House has said that Trump is
opposed to universal mail-in voting, rather than individual voters
who may need the alternative voting method for reasons such as
travel or military deployment.
___
Swenson reported from New York, and Cooper reported from Phoenix.
Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, Susan
Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut, and Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus,
Ohio, contributed to this report.
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