Trump's Mail-In Voting Power Grab Gets Hit With Lawsuit From 23 States

Trump's latest assault on voting rights just ran into a legal buzzsaw. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Washington D.C., and 22 Democratic-led states filed a federal lawsuit on April 3 challenging Trump's executive order that attempts to seize control of mail-in voting from the states.

The March 31 executive order directs the U.S. Postal Service to maintain a federal list of absentee voters and refuse to deliver mail-in ballots to anyone not on that list. It also orders the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration to create a national registry of eligible voters to share with states.

The lawsuit calls it what it is: "a shocking and unprecedented power grab."

Constitutional Crisis

Here's the thing Trump and his enablers keep forgetting: the Constitution explicitly gives states the authority to administer elections. Not the president. Not the executive branch. States.

"The President's latest attempt to interfere with the States' administration of their elections is as unprecedented as it is unconstitutional," the lawsuit states.

Shapiro, who previously served as Pennsylvania's attorney general and took Trump to court over his 2020 election lies, didn't mince words: "The U.S. Constitution makes clear that elections are to be run by the states, and here in Pennsylvania, we believe that the administration of elections should be nonpartisan. The good people of Pennsylvania will vote -- whether in person or by mail -- their votes will be counted, and the will of the people will be respected. Pennsylvanians choose their representatives, not Donald Trump."

The Constitution is clear: Congress, not the president, has the power to alter state election regulations. Trump's executive order is an end-run around both Congress and the states.

A Database Built to Fail

The lawsuit warns that Trump's order will rely on the Department of Homeland Security's Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system to determine citizenship and voter eligibility. There's just one problem: SAVE is "notoriously inaccurate."

NPR reported in December about voter registrations being wrongfully cancelled based on SAVE data. Now Trump wants to use this flawed system as the gatekeeper for who gets to vote by mail nationwide.

The order threatens election officials and "any others involved in the administration of Federal elections" with criminal prosecution if they issue ballots to voters the federal government deems ineligible -- regardless of whether those federal lists are accurate. It's a naked attempt to intimidate state officials into purging eligible voters.

Chaos and Disenfranchisement

The lawsuit argues Trump's order will create mass confusion, cost states time and money to implement, and disenfranchise eligible voters -- particularly voters with disabilities, U.S. citizens living abroad, and military members and their families who rely on mail-in voting.

Even some Republicans are sounding the alarm. Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt, a Republican, told ABC's "This Week": "We want voters to know that the election is going to be free, fair, safe and secure, and that everyone knows what the rules are prior to going into this. So, confusion is never a positive thing unless you are seeking to sow distrust in the outcome of an election."

That last part is the quiet part out loud. Trump has a long history of spreading lies about voter fraud, especially regarding his 2020 loss to Joe Biden. He and his Republican allies filed dozens of lawsuits trying to overturn Pennsylvania's 2020 results. All failed.

Trump claims he wants to "get rid of mail-in ballots" -- yet he voted by mail himself in a Florida special election in March. Rules for thee, but not for me.

Growing Legal Resistance

The states' lawsuit is just one of several legal challenges mounting against Trump's executive order. The League of Women Voters and US Vote Foundation filed suit on April 2, warning the order "would upend countless state laws and procedures regarding mail-in voting" and "create chaos for election officials, erode public confidence in our elections, and block Americans from exercising their most fundamental right and responsibility as citizens -- voting."

A coalition of civil rights groups including the NAACP also filed a lawsuit last week.

The White House's response? Spokeswoman Abigail Jackson claimed "only Democrat politicians and operatives would be upset about lawful efforts to secure American elections." That's gaslighting. There's nothing lawful about a president seizing powers the Constitution doesn't give him.

The Bigger Picture

Trump's executive order comes as Republicans in Congress consider the SAVE America Act, which would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. That proof would need to match a person's birth certificate exactly -- creating barriers for anyone who has legally changed their name, including millions of married women.

This is part of a coordinated strategy to make voting harder, particularly for communities that tend to vote Democratic. It's voter suppression dressed up as election security.

The lawsuit makes clear what's at stake: "Americans in every corner of our country, rural and urban, Black and white, rich and poor" depend on mail-in voting. Trump's order threatens to disenfranchise them all.

The case is being heard in federal court in Massachusetts. Given the clear constitutional issues at play, Trump's order faces an uphill battle. But that won't stop him from using it to spread more lies about election fraud and sow distrust in the 2026 midterms.

That's the playbook: create chaos, claim the system is rigged, and use the confusion you created as evidence. It's authoritarian 101.