President Donald Trump escalates his push to restrict mail-in voting with a new executive order, setting up a legal battle ahead of the midterm elections.
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday seeking a federal crackdown on mail-in voting. The move escalates his long-running campaign to restrict the popular voting method ahead of crucial midterm elections.
The order follows Trump’s repeated attacks on US elections, which are based on disproven conspiracy theories about cheating by his Democratic opponents. Legal experts immediately questioned the president’s authority to impose such measures, with swift court challenges promised.
“We will sue,” said prominent Democratic Party elections lawyer Marc Elias. “I don’t bluff and I usually win.”
The order comes as Trump’s Republican Party faces a serious threat of losing its narrow control of Congress in November. Polls suggest Democrats could retake the House of Representatives, which would allow them to block Trump’s agenda and potentially move to impeach him.
Experts believe measures restricting mail-in voting could lower turnout, with significant consequences in tightly contested districts. At the signing, Trump repeated evidence-free claims painting US elections as corrupt.
“The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary. It’s horrible,” Trump said, calling Democratic leaders in Congress “corrupt.” He added, “They want to be able to cheat.”
Trump is the first president in modern history to refuse a peaceful transfer of power, based on his false claim that he won the 2020 election against Joe Biden. No credible authority has produced evidence that the 2020 vote or any other was impacted by widespread fraud.
Notably, Trump himself has frequently voted by mail, including as recently as this month in Florida. A Brookings Institution review of decades of data found only 39 cases of fraud among more than 100 million ballots cast in 32 elections over three decades.
Tuesday’s order follows the Republican Party’s failure to pass a more comprehensive set of voting restrictions called the “SAVE America” act. That bill would have required photo ID and proof of citizenship to register, which experts say could disenfranchise millions.
An analysis by the Brennan Center found over 21 million Americans lack easy access to documents like passports or birth certificates. Trump’s push for