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Trump’s new attack on mail-in voting, briefly explained
A new executive order attempts to seize control of mail-in voting.
Cameron Peters is a staff editor at Vox.
Welcome to The Logoff: President Donald Trump is still trying to limit mail-in voting.
What happened? On Tuesday evening, Trump signed an executive order that would create new citizenship lists to determine eligibility to vote and limit who the US Postal Service can send ballots to.
Is this order going to go anywhere? Very likely not, for a number of reasons. First, it’s almost certainly unconstitutional: The Constitution gives states the power to determine the “Times, Places and Manner” of elections, with no role for the executive branch.
There are also practical obstacles. As Kevin R. Kosar, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, points out, the implementation of the order in time for the 2026 midterms — should it be allowed to go forward — would present serious logistical challenges.
What’s the context? Limiting mail-in voting has been Trump’s white whale since his defeat in the 2020 election, which he has blamed on mail ballots. Most recently, he’s tried to get it done legislatively: The SAVE America Act, which is currently stuck in the Senate (and unlikely to come unstuck), would not only limit mail-in voting, but impose new voter ID requirements.
Despite Trump’s attacks, there is no evidence that mail-in voting is associated with significant voter fraud.
Didn’t Trump vote by mail himself? Yes. Records show Trump, who has attacked mail-in voting as “cheating,” voted by mail in Florida’s recent special elections, despite being in Palm Beach at the time.
What’s the big picture? As Rick Hasen, a University of California Los Angeles law professor, pointed out in a blog post, the order is flimsy enough that it’s more “election denialism theater” than anything else — intended to paint US elections, baselessly, as not secure and in need of reform.
That kind of theater isn’t without real-world dangers. This specific order is unlikely to throw US elections into chaos — but it’s yet another entry in Trump’s long-running campaign to undermine Americans’ confidence in the democratic process.
And with that, it’s time to log off…
It’s moon mission day! You can read my colleague Caitlin Dewey on the new space race here, and tune in to watch on YouTube, C-SPAN, and lots of other places. The two-hour launch window opens at 6:24 pm Eastern.
While you’re waiting, here’s a gift link explaining why the Artemis II spacesuits are not white but a specific shade called International Orange (I’m a fan, personally).
Thanks for reading, have a great evening, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!
