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President Donald Trump has signed an executive order imposing stricter mail-in voting rules.
Getting into it: The order, which Trump signed in the Oval Office with the press, is essentially a directive telling federal agencies to help create a nationwide system to verify who is allowed to vote and to limit mail-in ballots only to those verified individuals. In simple terms, the federal government will work to compile its own database of eligible voters across all states, pulling information from multiple federal agencies such as DHS and the Social Security Administration, with absentee ballots only being distributed to individuals who appear in that system. The order also outlines stricter handling rules, including requirements tied to how ballots are packaged and monitored, along with enforcement mechanisms that could financially penalize states that choose not to comply.
Trump has argued the move is necessary to prevent what he calls widespread fraud in mail-in voting, while administration officials have framed it as an “election integrity” effort to ensure only citizens vote.
The order is expected to face immediate legal challenges because the Constitution gives states (not the president) primary control over how elections are run. Critics argue that the president does not have the authority to impose nationwide voting rules or force states to adopt a federally created voter list. Legal arguments against the order will likely focus on separation of powers and states’ rights, while supporters may argue the federal government has a role in protecting election security and enforcing existing voting laws.
Courts will ultimately have to decide whether the order oversteps presidential power, and those rulings could determine whether the policy is blocked, modified, or allowed to move forward.
This all comes as the United States Senate has not secured enough votes to pass the SAVE Act, a bill pushed by Trump that would require stricter verification of voter eligibility, including proof of citizenship and additional identification requirements during registration and voting.
