Trump signs executive order limiting mail-in ballots; California leaders say they’ll fight

President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to impose new federal controls on mail-in voting in states like California, reiterating his long-standing but unsubstantiated claim that mail-in ballots are a source of widespread fraud in U.S. elections.

California leaders immediately responded by promising to challenge the order in court. They said mail voting is a safe and secure voting method relied on by millions of Californians, that Trump’s order infringes on the state’s constitutional right to administer elections as it sees fit, and that it amounts to an “unlawful power grab” ahead of the midterm elections in which his party is poised to suffer substantial losses.

The order directs the United States Postal Service to take control of mail-in voting by designing new envelopes with special barcodes that will allow the federal government to ensure that those ballots are sent only to eligible voters and that only eligible voters return those ballots.

It requires states to undergo the USPS process if they plan to use the federal mail system to send or receive ballots, and to submit lists of eligible voters to the USPS before those ballots pass through the mail system.

It also requires the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the Social Security Administration to “compile and transmit to the chief election official of each state a list of persons confirmed to be United States citizens who will be over 18 years of age at the time of an upcoming federal election and who maintain residence in the applicable state.”

These lists will be drawn from federal citizenship and naturalization records, Social Security records, and “other relevant federal databases,” and the USPS will be prohibited from transmitting ballots that do not match these lists, the order states.

“Secure ballot envelope identifiers provide a reliable and verifiable mechanism to enforce federal law without unduly burdening or infringing on the rights of eligible voters,” the order states. “Unique ballot envelope identifiers, such as barcodes, help confirm that only citizens receive and vote, reducing the risk of fraud and protecting the integrity of federal elections. »

Trump – who recently himself voted by mail in Florida – presented the order as a solution to “massive cheating” in the current US election, which he has not supported with evidence.

“The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary. It’s horrible what’s happening,” Trump said.

“It is going to ensure that mail-in ballots are secure and accurate,” said Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who appeared alongside Trump and whose order requires the agency to be involved in coordinating the new voting measures.

California officials criticized the president for attacking and undermining election integrity, rather than solidifying it, and said they would oppose allowing the order to take effect.

“President Trump’s executive order marks a dangerous and unprecedented escalation in his continued attacks on our elections. The power to regulate elections rests with the states and Congress – it has no role to play. We blocked his previous executive order on elections in the courts, and we are ready to stop it again,” said California Atty. General Rob Bonta.

“The reality is that President Trump and congressional Republicans see what’s on the wall — that they’re likely to lose in the upcoming midterms — and they’re pushing to make it harder for people to vote,” Bonta added. “We will not stand idly by.”

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), in a statement to the Times, said Trump’s actions pose “a clear and present threat to our democracy,” that he “will use every tool possible to stop him” and that he expects “immediate legal challenges to protect our free and fair elections.”

“Instead of focusing on lowering the cost of energy, groceries and health care, Donald Trump is desperately trying to seize power and rig our elections and avoid accountability in November. This executive order is a blatant and unconstitutional abuse of power,” said Padilla, the top Democrat on the Senate Rules and Administration Committee.

“The President and the Department of Homeland Security have no authority to commandeer federal elections or order the independent Postal Service to undermine the mail-in and mail-in voting that nearly 50 million Americans were counting on in 2024,” he said. “A decade of lies about voter fraud does not change the Constitution.”

“Amid an unauthorized war abroad and a growing authoritarian crackdown by ICE here at home, Trump is attempting another illegal power grab,” Padilla said.

A large majority of Californians vote by mail. In the 2025 special election on Proposition 50, the state’s mid-decade redistricting measure, nearly 89% of votes were cast by mail, according to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber’s office — or nearly 10.3 million of about 11.6 million ballots cast.

Trump has long criticized mail-in ballots — without evidence — as a source of fraud and a factor in his loss of the 2020 election to President Biden, whom he still maintains is illegitimate.

Election experts, voting rights advocates, local elections officials and other California leaders have all dismissed the claims as unfounded and inaccurate. They are also preparing for Trump to act to restrict this type of voting.

Padilla had previously warned his colleagues that he would force a vote on any attempt by Trump to declare a national emergency to take control of this year’s midterm elections from the states, forcing them to either co-sign the takeover or resist it.

Critics of mail-in voting are also actively working to end or restrict the practice. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case in which the Republican Party challenged a Mississippi law that allows ballots to be accepted and counted if they arrive up to five days after Election Day.

During those arguments, the court’s six conservatives appeared poised to rule that federal law requires ballots to be received by Election Day in order to be considered legal.

Weber, California’s top elections official, warned that attacks on mail-in voting risk undermining a system the state spent years building around universal mail-in voting.

Trump’s executive order is the latest front in a years-long campaign he is waging to attack the integrity of US elections – which has contributed to a sharp decline in voter confidence in US elections.

On Tuesday, Trump said his order was written by “great legal minds” and would survive any legal challenge unless “rogue” judges ruled against it inappropriately.

“We want an honest vote in our country,” he said.

Rick Hasen, an election law expert and director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA Law, argued otherwise in an article published Tuesday, noting that a previous executive order to impose new federal controls on elections was blocked in the courts, and that “this one is unlikely to fare any better.”

“To put it plainly: the order would use the USPS, which is not under the direct control of the president, to interfere with a state’s lawful transmission of ballots. If the state fails to follow these rules, federal law would purport to interfere with a state’s conduct of its own elections,” Hasen wrote. “The president does not have the authority to do this.”