President Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order to tighten the rules around mail-in voting just ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
The order would require a list to be created in each state of citizens who are eligible to vote. Absentee ballots will only be sent to those on the approved list. Ballots will have secure envelopes with barcodes to track them.
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The mail-in voting executive reforms, long sought by Trump, are all but certain to face legal challenge in the courts.
“I believe it’s foolproof, and maybe it’ll be tested. Maybe it won’t,” Trump said Tuesday in an Oval Office signing ceremony. “It’s about voter integrity; we want to have honest voting in our country.”
The Department of Homeland Security, working in conjunction with the Social Security Administration, will create the voter lists. The Department of Justice would investigate any wrongdoing in mail-in ballot distribution. States that disobey the order may lose federal funds.
It’s not clear how the order will affect the midterm primary elections, which are already underway in many states. Trump directs the Department of Homeland Security to establish a system to compile and transmit the “state citizenship list” within 90 days — which is by the end of June.
Midterm election day is Nov. 3.
Trump’s order comes as the Save America Act, which he has pushed heavily, is stuck in a legislative logjam on Capitol Hill. The president is in favor of the act, which requires proof of U.S. citizenship (such as a passport or birth certificate) to register to vote in federal elections.
He’s also a vocal critic of mail-in voting, saying it leaves too many opportunities for fraud.
“We want to have honest voting in our country, because if you don’t have honest voting, you can’t have, really, a nation if you want to know the truth,” Trump said at the signing ceremony.
