States Challenge Trump Administration’s Authority Over Proposed Mail-In Voting Standards Using Federal Lists and USPS Regulations

A federal lawsuit filed on Friday accuses President Donald Trump of unlawfully attempting to control state election processes, allegedly violating the U.S. Constitution by limiting voter eligibility and mail-in voting to pre-approved lists dictated by his administration.

In March 2025, Trump, serving as the 45th and 47th president, enacted Executive Order 14248, named “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections.” This order aims to transform election administration nationwide, mandating voter citizenship verification through formal documentation and halting the practice of counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day, even if postmarked by then.

Last month, Trump introduced another executive order focused on elections, titled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.” This order attempts to solidify the administration’s stance by enforcing the use of approved voter lists, restricting mail-in voting to align with these lists, and imposing stringent record-keeping requirements on states.

California and several other states spearheading the lawsuit argue that Trump has once more disregarded fundamental constitutional principles concerning state-administered federal elections with this new executive order.

“The President’s latest effort to meddle with state election administration is both unprecedented and unconstitutional,” the lawsuit asserts. “According to our Constitution, the President lacks the authority to limit voter eligibility or mail voting to federally pre-authorized lists. The plaintiff states are pursuing this action to protect their constitutional power to manage both state and federal elections.”

The three-count lawsuit is premised on myriad constitutional theories including intertwining violations of the separation of powers, the elections and electors clauses, commandeering and excess authority.

Under the relevant provisions of the executive order, the Trump administration directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in conjunction with immigration and Social Security officials, to generate a list of voters eligible to vote by citizenship status per state.

The order further directs the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to firmly limit the use of mail-in and absentee voting to its own list – along with a lengthy series of new conditions on vote-by-mail generated by USPS like specific ballot envelope, identification, and tracking standards.

Finally, the order mandates a five-year period in which states and localities “should” preserve “all records and materials — excluding ballots cast — evidencing voter participation in any Federal election (e.g., ballot envelopes, regardless of carrier).”

To hear the plaintiffs tell it, these presidential demands are “contrary to the expressed will of Congress” with regard to mail-in voting and amount to “unreasonable discrimination among users of the mails” in violation of federal law.

“Having failed to enact changes to election administration through Congress, the President has resorted to unlawfully attempting to legislate by fiat,” the filing goes on. “The [executive order] mandates that federal agencies create their own voter eligibility lists and imposes those lists on the States through threats of prosecuting States and their elections officials”

From the complaint, at length:

The EO erects shadow voter eligibility lists within the federal government and uses threats of investigation and prosecution to coerce States into disenfranchising voters missing from those lists. It also directly interferes with mail voting by mandating that the United States Postal Service refuse to deliver voted ballots unless the voters are on USPS’s precleared list, which is maintained outside the control of the States who administer federal elections. Finally, the EO purports to lengthen the existing period for elections officials to preserve elections records to facilitate threatened prosecutions, contradicting existing requirements in state and federal law.

“Plaintiff States will be harmed by the new federal initiative to interfere with States’ administration of mail voting, including harm to their sovereignty and significant costs and administrative burdens,” the filing continues.

The states also complains about a section of the order which threatens a loss of federal funding for “noncompliance,” which they describe as an effort to “to coerce States into disenfranchising voters missing from those lists.”

The lawsuit also notes that the timing of the newly-proposed rules and regulations would essentially upend existing election administration procedures within weeks of upcoming primary elections and months before this year’s midterm general election. The states say this is a “dangerously quick pace” to try and move forward with a wholesale overhaul of vote-by-mail systems that will “sow confusion and chaos” and likely disenfranchise numerous voters.

“Once again, President Trump is trying to rewrite the rules of our elections. But he lacks the authority to do so — full stop,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a press release announcing the litigation. “The U.S. Constitution clearly gives States the primary authority over elections and gives zero authority to the President. This latest executive order is just another unlawful attempt to restrict voting, fueled by his fear of losing the upcoming midterm elections and based on wholly unfounded allegations of voter fraud.”