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BumRushDaShow

(172,081 posts) Fri May 15, 2026, 05:43 AM 13 hrs ago

Judge weighs challenges to Trump order on mail voting limits

Source: Roll Call

Posted May 14, 2026 at 6:24pm

A federal judge in Washington acknowledged Thursday the tight timeline he faces in deciding whether to pause President Donald Trump’s executive order to create a national voter list and limit mail voting nationwide.

Congressional Democratic leaders, the Democratic National Committee and party campaign committees, as well as civil rights groups and advocacy organizations, urged Judge Carl Nichols for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to pause aspects of the executive order Trump issued at the end of March.

The executive order sought to have the Department of Homeland Security create a nationwide “state citizenship list” and then have the government coordinate with states to use that list as they manage their voter rolls. Separately the order would have the U.S. Postal Service create a rule to restrict election mail to only people on state voter lists.

Additionally, the order directed the attorney general and other agencies to seek to investigate and punish states or local governments that did not comply, including by rescinding federal funds.

At one point during Thursday’s two-hour hearing, Nichols said that if he waited until July, when the order stated the postal service would finalize the rule, “now we’re on the cusp of election season.” “Why shouldn’t I take it up now?” Nichols asked the government.

Read more: https://rollcall.com/2026/05/14/judge-weighs-challenges-to-trump-order-on-mail-voting-limits/

3 replies

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Judge weighs challenges to Trump order on mail voting limits (Original Post) BumRushDaShow 13 hrs ago OP

How about Trump's executive order is unconstitutional and illegal!!! Multichromatic 10 hrs ago #1

This order is clearly unconstitutional LetMyPeopleVote 1 hr ago #2

MaddowBlog-Trump's elections power-grab on mail-in voting is likely to fail, but it's not irrelevant LetMyPeopleVote 1 hr ago #3

Multichromatic

(208 posts)

1. How about Trump's executive order is unconstitutional and illegal!!!

Reply to BumRushDaShow (Original post)

Fri May 15, 2026, 08:41 AM

10 hrs ago

LetMyPeopleVote

(181,878 posts)

2. This order is clearly unconstitutional

Reply to BumRushDaShow (Original post)

Fri May 15, 2026, 05:59 PM

1 hr ago

trump's latest executive order is really sad. The upcoming litigation will be fun to watch

'You will lose': Trump immediately drowned in legal threats over new voting order

www.rawstory.com/trump-voting...
— Mynameis...Miro (@zg4ever.bsky.social) 2026-04-01T01:31:43.724Z

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-voting-2676645591/

President Donald Trump, stymied in all efforts to pass a voting restrictions bill through the Senate, announced an executive order on Tuesday attempting to crack down on mail-in voting by executive fiat. The order, among other things, imposes mandates on states for how to send out and process ballots, directs states to share information on mail-in voters with the administration, and directs the Postal Service to monitor who is voting by mail.

Many of the provisions seem to be theater, experts noted — but the order still triggered immediate alarm, and threats of legal action.

"This is a massive and unconstitutional voter suppression effort aimed at giving Trump the power to create a list of who is allowed to vote by mail," wrote voting rights attorney Marc Elias. "We know where this will go -- the targeting of Democrats for mass disenfranchisement. We will sue and we will win."

"It will be challenged because it is an unconstitutional use of authority the President doesn't have over who can vote by mail," wrote attorney and former Pennsylvania Rep. Conor Lamb. "If [Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne] Mullin valued his oath he would refuse to enforce this order or step down. But he is an election denier and will enforce it happily."

"Article 1, Section 4 gives state legislatures — not the President — the power to choose the manner of voting," wrote attorney Patrick Jaicomo.

"The president has zero power to make any changes to mail-in voting so I expect this to be another nothing-burger," wrote American Immigration Institute senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.

LetMyPeopleVote

(181,878 posts)

3. MaddowBlog-Trump's elections power-grab on mail-in voting is likely to fail, but it's not irrelevant

Reply to BumRushDaShow (Original post)

Fri May 15, 2026, 06:00 PM

1 hr ago

It might be tempting to brush off the president’s executive order as pointless political theater. But it’s not quite that simple.

It might be tempting to brush off Trumpâ€™s latest elections power-grab as pointless political theater since the executive order will fail in the courts.

But when a president becomes the nationâ€™s most serious threat to the integrity of the electoral process, it matters.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-04-01T12:58:44.338Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trumps-elections-power-grab-is-likely-to-fail-but-that-doesnt-mean-its-irrelevant

As March came to an end, the Republican again ignored his own country’s policymaking process, again decided to circumvent Congress and again signed an executive order giving himself sweeping authority over the country’s elections systems. MS NOW reported:

Trump’s order requires the Department of Homeland Security … to create a list of U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote. DHS would be expected to rely on information provided by the Social Security Administration, according to the Daily Caller, which first reported the Trump administration’s plans.

The U.S. Postal Service would then use that database to send absentee ballots to voters identified as eligible for mail-in voting, according to a White House fact sheet. The ballots would be mailed in envelopes with special codes only to voters enrolled in state-specific absentee ballot programs.

.....If Trump’s policy is ridiculous, and its failure in the courts appears inevitable, it might be tempting to brush off his latest gambit as pointless political theater.

But it’s not quite that simple. For one thing, the latest power-grab is part of a comprehensive effort to undermine public confidence in the nation’s electoral system and sow doubts about election results that Republicans don’t like. The president has played an instrumental role in fueling unnecessary public skepticism, and his executive order is likely to make a bad situation worse.

For another, Trump continues to position himself as the nation’s single most serious threat to the integrity of the electoral process.

On Tuesday morning, The New York Times published an op-ed by Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, who made a convincing case that the most pressing danger to our elections isn’t coming from abroad; it’s coming from the White House.

“For months, President Trump has made his intentions clear,” the senator wrote. “He has called for the federal government to ‘take over’ elections, impose national rules and override state authority. Now we are beginning to see how he may plan to do this.”

Later that same day, the president helped prove Warner right.

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