WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order creating a nationwide list of verified eligible voters, a move that is sure to draw legal challenges as the president continues to demand further restrictions on voting ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
The order 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, although the president likely lacks the power to mandate what the Postal Service does.
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.
“I think it’s going to be really great,” Trump said.
Yet Tuesday’s order is expected to prompt legal challenges, as the president continues to try to interfere with state-run elections.
Trump’s first election executive order in March sought sweeping changes to how elections are run across the country, 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 said in a February interview with a conservative podcaster that he wants to “take over” elections from Democratic-run areas, citing fraud allegations that numerous audits, investigations and courts have debunked.
Tuesday’s voting order shows he hasn’t learned from his previous, blocked efforts to assert control over elections, said David Becker, a former Justice Department lawyer who leads the Center for Election Innovation and Research.
“The Constitution is very clear — the president has no power over elections in the states,” Becker said. “This will be blocked as soon as lawyers can get to the courthouse.”
Elections in the U.S. 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 so-called “Elections Clause” also gives Congress the power to “make or alter” election regulations, at least for federal office, but it doesn’t mention any presidential authority over election administration.
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. Trump’s accusations of widespread fraud are unfounded; 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 mail ballots.
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.
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Swenson reported from New York. Associated Press writer Julie Carr Smyth contributed to this report from Columbus, Ohio.
