President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday directing the Department of Homeland Security to compile lists of eligible voters in every state and ordering the U.S. Postal Service to craft rules limiting the delivery and return of mail-in ballots to individuals on those lists.
“I think this will help a lot with elections,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday while speaking in the Oval Office. “We’d like to have voter ID. We’d like to have proof of citizenship.”
The executive order, expected to face legal challenges from Democrats, effectively creates a federal voter verification system. It orders DHS to partner with the Social Security Administration to compile a list of verified citizens eligible to vote in every single state using federal records. The list will be sent to state election officials at least 60 days before a federal election.
Trump’s order also directs the Postal Service to design rules for handling mail-in and absentee ballots. Ballots would be mailed back in specially designed envelopes with barcodes for easy tracking. Under the proposed framework, ballots would not be sent or returned through the mail unless the voter appears on a DHS-verified list.
“What the president is doing today is he’s going to make sure that mail-in ballots are safe, secure, and accurate, and will have a clear distinction,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters.
Each state’s election officials would be provided with a comprehensive view of who the eligible voters are in their jurisdiction, allowing them to properly verify that everyone voting in their elections is legally eligible to vote, according to the White House.
Trump has long criticized mail voting for enabling inaccurate voter rolls that allow ineligible people to vote in various federal and state elections.
The order is meant to bypass congressional action on the SAVE America Act, which has stalled in Congress as lawmakers are on a two-week Easter recess. The SAVE America Act would require ID to cast a ballot and proof of citizenship to register to vote. Trump has also pushed for the legislation to include new restrictions on voting by mail after he recently used the mail-in method in the special election for a Florida state house seat.
The effort comes as Trump has pressured Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to bypass the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold and pass the legislation.
By law, only Congress can make wide-sweeping changes to how states conduct elections. Democratic lawyer Marc Elias is already vowing to challenge the order.
“If Trump signs an unconstitutional Executive Order to take over voting, we will sue,” Elias wrote on X. “I don’t bluff and I usually win.”
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Trump preemptively pushed back against future lawsuits against the order.
“I don’t know how it can be challenged,” Trump said. “You may find a rogue judge. You get a lot of rogue judges, very bad, bad people, very bad judges. But that’s the only way that can be changed.”
