Trump Signs Order Creating Federal Citizen Lists and Limiting Mail Ballots

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that directs the Department of Homeland Security to compile lists of U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state and asks the U.S. Postal Service to carry mail ballots only to people on those lists, according to CBS News, NBC News and NPR. The order is certain to face court challenges, the outlets reported.

Under the order, DHS, working with the Social Security Administration, is to build “state citizenship lists” from federal citizenship and naturalization records, Social Security data and other databases, NBC News and NPR reported. The lists would go to the states to verify voter rolls, NBC News said, and CBS News reported that the Postal Service may send absentee ballots only to people on each state’s list, with one envelope per ballot. A White House official told CBS News that states that do not comply risk losing federal funding. CBS News noted it is not clear what happens if an eligible citizen is left off a list, and that it is unclear how the order will affect primaries already underway.

“The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary,” Trump said in the Oval Office, per CBS News. “That’s a big deal,” he added, saying he did not believe courts could overturn it. He said voter ID and proof of citizenship would be “another subject for another time,” NBC News reported. He has been pressing Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would add proof-of-citizenship and voter ID requirements, according to NBC News and CBS News. Trump has alleged without evidence that mail voting is rife with fraud, CBS News reported; he voted by mail in a Florida special election this month, NBC News noted.

Trump has long railed about noncitizen voting, NPR reported. CBS News reported that noncitizen voting is already illegal and rare, citing the Trump-aligned Heritage Foundation’s count of roughly 100 verified cases since 2000.

Election law experts said the order is likely unconstitutional. The Constitution leaves the “Times, Places and Manner” of elections to the states, with Congress able to make changes, NPR reported. “This will be blocked by the federal courts before the ink is dry,” said David Becker, founder of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, per NBC News. A year-old order on elections has largely been blocked by federal judges, NPR and NBC News said. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, called the new order “a disgusting overreach” and said he would “meet the federal government in court,” NPR reported, and, CBS News reported, Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias posted on X shortly before the signing that “we will sue.”

NBC News reported that Kurt Olsen, now the White House director of election security and integrity, and Heather Honey, who holds a senior role at DHS, were involved in discussions about the order, according to a person familiar with the preparations. The Daily Caller first reported its outline, CBS News said. CBS News also reported that the Justice Department and DHS are close to an agreement letting the government use sensitive voter registration data for immigration and criminal investigations, and NPR said a Justice Department official acknowledged in court that the data would be run through DHS’s SAVE system, which NPR has reported has inaccurately flagged some citizens. The Justice Department is suing states over access to voter rolls, NPR and CBS News reported.