Trump’s Vote-By-Mail Crackdown Sparks Alarm — Oregon Leaders Push Back Hard

President Donald Trump’s latest executive order targeting vote-by-mail elections is less about protecting democracy and more about undermining it. The order demands that Homeland Security compile lists of eligible voters and restricts the U.S. Postal Service from sending ballots to anyone not on these state-approved rosters. This move threatens to throw a wrench into the mail-in voting process just as millions prepare to cast ballots.

In Oregon, where mail-in voting is a cornerstone of the state’s election system, Sen. Ron Wyden and Secretary of State Tobias Read are pushing back. Speaking at the Sellwood-Moreland Library, Wyden dropped off his own ballot and made it clear that vote-by-mail remains safe, secure, and convenient. “This is safe,” Wyden said. “We have a backup in terms of the signatures and people find it convenient. It’s an awful lot better way to go than to have people waiting hours and hours on a workday just to be part of democracy.”

Wyden also called out the hypocrisy of Trump’s order, noting that the president himself used mail-in voting in a recent Florida special election. “What is Donald Trump so frightened about when we vote by mail? After all, he does it when it’s convenient for him,” Wyden said.

Secretary of State Tobias Read echoed these sentiments, dismissing the order as a political ploy by a president desperate to avoid accountability. “It’s not about election security; it’s not about anything but a president who knows that he is unpopular and is looking for every way possible to avoid that accountability that is represented by elections,” Read said.

Read also urged voters not to delay returning their ballots due to recent postal service changes, recommending the use of official county drop boxes to ensure timely delivery. “Fundamentally, my responsibility is to make sure Oregonians who are eligible get to cast their vote and be confident that it is counted accurately,” he said.

With Oregon’s primary election just days away on May 19, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Trump’s executive order is the latest in a series of authoritarian moves aimed at restricting access to the ballot box, but Oregon’s leaders are standing firm to protect the right to vote by mail. This battle over voting access is a clear example of how the Trump administration’s attacks on democracy continue to escalate — and why vigilance is needed now more than ever.