News

Democratic-led states sue over Trump mail-in ballot order

Comments:

by Tolu Talabi - 04/03/26 4:06 PM ET

Comments:

Link copied

by Tolu Talabi - 04/03/26 4:06 PM ET

Comments:

Link copied

NOW PLAYING

More than 20 Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Friday over the president’s executive order that restricts voter eligibility and mail-in voting.

The lawsuit argues that the U.S. Constitution gives states the primary authority to administer elections and that it is unconstitutional for the president to impose changes to federal election procedures without the permission of Congress. The suit is led by the attorneys general for California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Washington, along with co-litigant states.

“The Court should declare the specified provisions of the EO(Executive Order) unlawful and void and order corresponding preliminary and permanent relief,” the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts stated.

Trump’s executive order signed on Tuesday, directs the U.S. Postal Service to send ballots only to eligible voters on a list provided by the Department of Homeland Security with help from the Social Security Administration. Approved mail-in ballot envelopes will have unique barcodes for tracking, and states that do not comply could have their federal funding withheld.

The order also directed the attorney general to prioritize investigating and prosecuting anyone accused of sending ballots to ineligible voters.

“The President wants to control your vote. He wants to tell the Postal Service what ballots they can accept and when. But this is patently unconstitutional,” Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown said in a statement Friday. “And come November, despite the president’s lawless threats, we’ll once again use that power to protect our democracy.”

“Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy, and no president has the power to rewrite the rules on his own,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement Friday. “This executive order is yet another attempt to disenfranchise voters and sow distrust in our electoral system as we head into the next election cycle.”

Similarly, Democrats sued the Trump administration Wednesday to block the executive order on mail-in voting. Democratic leaders in Congress — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) — filed the lawsuit along with the Democratic National Committee and other party organizations.

“Everyone can feel just how afraid Donald Trump and Republicans are of losing the upcoming elections by how hard they are pushing their radical and illegal voter suppression policies,” Schumer wrote in a statement Wednesday.

“This Executive Order attacking mail-in voting is just the latest in a series of frantic efforts by Donald Trump to rig elections for Republicans by trying to change the rules,” he added.

Trump has consistently claimed without evidence that mail-in ballots and votes of immigrants who are in the country illegally contributed to widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to former President Biden.

Trump on Tuesday reiterated his allegations about widespread “cheating” through mail-in voting during his executive order signing. Trump voted by mail from his Mar-a-Lago resort in a Florida special election last week.

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said that “Trump has spent years weaponizing federal agencies to prop up his false story that fraud cost him the 2020 election. He votes by mail. Oregonians vote by mail. And Oregon will keep running its own elections.”

California, Oregon, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah, Vermont, Washington state and Washington D.C. allow all elections to be conducted entirely by mail. Twenty-eight states allow no-excuse absentee voting, meaning voters are allowed to request an absentee ballot, while the remaining states require an excuse to qualify.

In addition to California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Washington, the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin are part of the lawsuit.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who served as the state’s attorney general from 2017-23, is also part of the lawsuit. Pennsylvania’s current attorney general, Dave Sunday, was sworn in last year — the first Republican to win election to the office in the state since 2008.

Add as preferred source on Google