President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday directing the creation of a nationwide verified voter list and placing new restrictions on mail-in balloting — drawing an immediate pledge to sue from Arizona’s Secretary of State, who called the move an unconstitutional federal overreach into state-run elections.
The order tasks the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration with building an approved voter list for each state. It would bar the U.S. Postal Service from delivering absentee ballots to anyone not on those lists and require ballots to carry unique tracking barcodes. States that refuse to comply could face the loss of federal funding.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes was among the first officials in the country to push back. Fontes pointed out that Arizona’s vote-by-mail system was built by Republicans and is now used by roughly 80 percent of the state’s voters. He argued the federal government has no authority to dictate voter eligibility to states and questioned the reliability of the federal data that would underpin the new list.
Arizona joins Oregon among the first states to announce legal action. Both states rely heavily on mail voting and see the order as a direct threat to how their elections function.
Legal experts have raised significant questions about the order’s constitutional footing, noting that election administration authority rests with the states under the Constitution, not the executive branch. The Trump administration’s DHS verification system has also faced prior legal challenges over data accuracy concerns.
The order is expected to face immediate court challenges before any of its provisions take effect.
