Trump’s Executive Order on Mail Voting Is Plainly Unconstitutional

President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday tightening mail-voting restrictions, instructing the Department of Homeland Security to create voter lists and the U.S. Postal Service to mark mail ballots with special tracking barcodes. State election officials including Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar say the order violates the Constitution's Elections Clause, which reserves election administration to states and Congress, not the president. David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, says he is "100 percent confident" courts will block it—citing the same constitutional provision that led a federal judge to strike down Trump's March 2025 executive order requiring proof of citizenship on federal voting forms. The order also grants the attorney general power to withhold federal funds from noncompliant states, and Aguilar expects a lawsuit will be filed within "days." Legal experts predict courts will quickly rule the executive order unconstitutional, allowing the tens of millions of voters who used mail ballots in 2024 to retain that option in the 2026 midterms.