Baskets of ballots sit at a modern ballot processing center in Thurston County, Washington, on October 30, 2025. (Photo by Jake Goldstein-Street/Washington State Standard)
President Donald Trump’s order restricting mail-in voting faced a modern challenge Friday as a coalition of Democratic states filed a lawsuit to block an order that experts say is an extraordinary attempt by the president to assert authority over elections.
More than 20 states – led by California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Washington – and the District of Columbia sued in federal court in Massachusetts. They argue the order violates the Constitution, which gives states responsibility for conducting elections and gives Congress, not the president, unilateral power to override state regulations.
“While the president may wish he had unfettered power to restrict voting rights, the Constitution gives states — not the White House — the power to oversee elections,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, a Democrat, said in a statement.
The lawsuit is just the latest in a growing number of legal challenges to the order since then Trump signed it on Tuesday.
The Democratic National Committee, top Democrats in Congress and other Democratic groups have complainedalong with the American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Women Voters, the League of United Latin American Citizens and other voting rights groups.
Friday’s state-led challenge marked at least the fifth lawsuit over the order.
“Neither the Constitution nor any act of Congress gives the President the authority to order sweeping changes to the states’ electoral systems or procedures,” the complaint states.
The Trump administration said the order was necessary to ensure election security and crack down on non-citizen voting, which studies show is extremely sporadic. Trump acknowledged that the order was likely to face litigation as he signed it, but called it “foolproof.”
“The President will do everything in his power to protect the security of America’s elections and ensure that only American citizens participate,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement on Wednesday.
List required
The order requires the Department of Homeland Security, with the lend a hand of the Social Security Administration, to compile a list of voting-age U.S. citizens living in each state and then make that information available to state officials at least 60 days before each federal election.
The order does not tell states how to operate the data, but it directs the U.S. attorney general to prioritize investigations of state and local officials who issue federal ballots to ineligible voters.
According to the order, the list of citizens will be drawn up from naturalization and social security documents. It will also include data from SAVE, a powerful Homeland Security computer program that verifies citizenship by comparing names with information in federal databases.
The order also directs the postmaster general to require that every outgoing mail-in ballot be placed in an envelope with a tracking barcode.
At least 90 days before a federal election, states must notify the U.S. Postal Service whether they intend to allow ballots to be sent by mail. States would then be required to provide the USPS with a list of voters who plan to vote by mail at least 60 days before the election.
“The phrase ‘a solution in search of a problem’ came to mind, but that’s kind of a quasi-solution in search of a hallucination,” said Pamela Smith, president and CEO of Verified Voting, an organization that promotes the responsible operate of technology in elections.
Under the order, the Justice Department and other federal agencies would be directed to withhold federal funds from states and localities that do not comply with federal law. It does not specify what federal funds would potentially be targeted or whether states could lose election-related dollars.
“The president’s illegal executive order creates a shadow list of eligible voters within the federal government and threatens to force states to disenfranchise voters missing from those lists,” Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said at a news conference in Las Vegas.
States say they run elections, not the government
The coalition of states argues in the lawsuit that Trump’s order would require states to upend existing election administration procedures and spend significant time and resources “mitigating the harms” of their requirements and educating voters about the modern rules.
States joining the lawsuit include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as the governor of the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat.
Some Republican state officials have supported Trump’s efforts. Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray expressed his “full and unqualified” support for the order in a statement.
“I look forward to continuing to work with the Trump Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, the United States Postal Inspection Service and our District officials to implement this executive order,” Gray said.
However, the complaint says the order would require states to violate their own voter registration procedures, systems and laws. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, said the Constitution clearly provides for states to conduct elections.
“Not the president,” Mayes said. “And Arizona will not allow the federal government to take control of our elections.”
