Colorado Leads Multistate Pushback Against Trump’s Unconstitutional Election Order

Colorado is taking a stand against President Donald Trump's latest attempt to seize control of the nation's elections. Attorney General Phil Weiser has joined a multistate lawsuit challenging Trump’s new executive order on elections, calling it unconstitutional and a direct threat to the right to vote for millions of Americans.

The executive order, signed by Trump on Tuesday, establishes a federally controlled voter-eligibility list and imposes stringent new restrictions on mail-in voting. Under the order, the U.S. Postal Service would be prohibited from sending absentee ballots to anyone not included on this federal list. Additionally, ballots must be placed in secure envelopes with unique barcodes to track votes — a move that critics say is designed to complicate and restrict voting access rather than secure it.

Weiser condemned the order in no uncertain terms, stating, “The president’s unlawful executive order threatens the right to vote for millions of Colorado voters—Democrat, Republican, or Unaffiliated—who use mail ballots. The president does not have the power to takeover elections by signing an executive order. The Constitution is clear that the states determine the time, place, and manner of elections.”

This lawsuit is not an isolated effort. Joining Colorado are Massachusetts, Nevada, Washington, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Together, they argue that Trump’s order unlawfully intrudes on state sovereignty and risks disenfranchising voters.

Trump has repeatedly attacked mail-in voting, labeling it as rife with fraud despite a lack of evidence. At the signing event, he doubled down on these unfounded claims, declaring, “The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary. It’s horrible what’s going on.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, standing alongside Trump during the announcement, emphasized that states using mail voting must rely on the U.S. Postal Service and implement the new barcode tracking system. This federal micromanagement starkly contrasts with decades of states independently managing their own election processes.

The Colorado Attorney General’s Office has been a persistent opponent of Trump administration overreach, having filed over 50 lawsuits against the administration. This latest legal challenge continues their fight to preserve democratic norms and protect voter rights from authoritarian encroachment.

Trump’s executive order represents a dangerous escalation in his ongoing campaign to undermine election integrity by centralizing control and sowing doubt about legitimate voting methods. The multistate lawsuit led by Colorado is a crucial front in the battle to defend the constitutional principle that states, not the president, govern elections.