New Trump Anti-Voting Order Coming, White House Confirms

The White House confirmed Tuesday that it is drafting a new executive order aiming to further restrict voting. 

In comments to reporters, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested the order will target mail voting, which appears to be in the center of the GOP’s crosshairs. 

“The White House is working on an executive order to strengthen our elections in this country, and to ensure that there cannot be blatant fraud, as we’ve seen in California, with their universal mail-in voting system,” Leavitt said. “Like any executive order, of course, any executive order the president signs is within his full executive authority and within the confines of the law.”

The comments came just hours after President Donald Trump attacked California’s mail voting process calling it “rigged” and threatening a “legal and criminal review” of mail ballots.

California’s referendum on whether to approve a Democratic redistricting effort, aimed at countering GOP redraws in Texas and elsewhere, concludes today. The ballot measure is expected to pass.

Leavitt did not specify what the executive order would do, but her remarks echoed years of Republican attempts to restrict mail voting and to challenge the counting of ballots that arrive after Election Day — even when they are legally postmarked.

When pressed for evidence of mail voting fraud, Leavitt repeated the same unsubstantiated claims.

“It’s absolutely true that there are [sic.] fraud in California’s elections. It’s just a fact,” Leavitt said. “Fraudulent ballots that are being mailed in, in the names of other people, in the names of illegal aliens who shouldn’t be voting in American elections. There’s countless examples, and we’d be happy to provide them.”

No evidence was provided during the press briefing. 

Since 2020, Trump and Republican officials have worked to cast doubt on mail voting, despite its popularity among voters of both parties. GOP-led legislatures in Georgia, Texas, Florida and other states have passed sweeping laws tightening absentee ballot deadlines, limiting drop boxes and imposing new ID or signature requirements. 

Earlier this year, Trump signed an executive order directing states to reject mail ballots received after Election Day even if postmarked on time. If states did not comply, federal election funding could have been revoked. The order, most of which has been blocked by the courts, also aimed to impose a documentary proof of citizenship requirement for voter registration.

As Democracy Docket reported, a top Republican said last week he planned to introduce legislation requiring states to scrap these mail ballot grace periods, which 17 states offer. And the Supreme Court could soon hear a GOP-backed case aimed at winning a nationwide ruling to the same effect.