Oregon, Washington and 21 other states on Friday became the latest parties to challenge a new executive order from President Donald Trump that, if it stands, would reshape mail voting throughout the country.
In a lawsuit filed in Massachusetts, the states argue that Trump far exceeded his authority with an order issued Tuesday.
Among its provisions, the order would direct federal agencies to create a list of voters who are eligible to vote in federal elections in each state and require that the United States Postal Service allow federal ballots to go to only those people. The order would allow the federal government to withhold funding from states that fail to comply.
Trump’s order has been broadly panned as illegal by critics, who point out that the U.S. Constitution gives authority over election administration to the states and to Congress — not the president.
There are already at least two existing lawsuits challenging the executive order, a second lawsuit also filed in Massachusetts by voting rights groups, and another filed in Washington, D.C., by Democratic Party organizations.
“The reality is this, the president has not and never will have the power to regulate elections here in the United States,” Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, a Democrat, told reporters in a press conference Friday morning, summarizing the thrust of the new lawsuit. “This is a role that was intentionally put into the hands of Congress and states, and the president does not get to usurp that power.”
Rayfield argued that Trump’s order amounted to a power grab by a president whose approval numbers are falling. He said the voter lists that the order would create will be prone to errors, and that new controls over who could receive ballots amount to “weaponizing” the postal service.
“This is about control,” he said. “When politicians start to see that they’re losing power or their grip on control, they start to implement ideas and thoughts on elections to maintain that control and power. And you’ve seen that during this last year.”
Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat seeking reelection this year, offered a similar stance. “[Trump’s] attack on the fundamental right of every American to vote has nothing to do with election integrity and everything to do with silencing people so he can ultimately influence election results,” she said in a statement.
As states prepare for this year’s general election, the suit filed Friday says Trump’s order would create pandemonium.
“Even with Plaintiff States’ best efforts, the EO has sown and will sow confusion and chaos in their election systems, together with the threat of disenfranchisement of States’ voters,” the lawsuit says.
Oregon is a national pioneer in vote by mail. In 2000, it became the first state in the nation to conduct all elections via mail ballots, though election officials increasingly urge voters to use drop boxes to ensure their ballot is counted.
Trump’s executive order is the latest step in his crusade against mail voting, which he often claims without evidence opens the door to mass voter fraud. The president used a mailed ballot to vote in a Florida election last week.
Trump’s new effort is not his first attempt to influence election rules by executive order. A 2025 order that would have required citizens to submit proof of citizenship to register to vote and also required all ballots to be received by Election Day was struck down by the courts.
The president is pushing a bill, the SAVE America Act, that would accomplish some of those same goals. It is mired in the U.S. Senate with little chance of passage.
While Democrats like Rayfield say there’s little doubt that Trump’s latest order will be held up in court, Oregon is preparing for likely changes in how it runs elections this year.
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority suggested in recent oral arguments on a Mississippi case that it could bar states like Oregon from accepting mailed ballots that arrive after Election Day. Oregon has allowed late ballots to be counted since 2022, as long as they are postmarked on or before the election.
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.