On Tuesday, President Donald Trump issued a new executive order targeting voter eligibility and voting by mail. Various experts, journalists and commentators are now concerned that Trump may be attempting to put his thumb on the scale ahead of next year's midterm elections.
According to the Washington Post, the order "could prevent millions of Americans from voting" if it passes legal muster. Notably, the order mandates that states require voters provide a "government-issued documentary proof of citizenship" upon registering to vote, and that only Real ID drivers' licenses and passports are accepted, whereas birth certificates alone are not sufficient. The order would also ban states from counting mailed ballots that arrive after Election Day, which would be a significant curtailing of voting by mail (states allowing vote-by-mail typically count ballots after Election Day provided that they were postmarked on or before Election Day).
SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah accused Trump of "trying to rig [the] 2026 election" with the order, and argued that "banning birth certificates is RIGGING!" Alexei Koseff, who covers the California state capitol for CalMatters, said the order has "huge implications" for residents of the largest state in the union, given how much of the Golden State votes by mail. Ottawa, Canada-based radio journalist Andy Pinsent observed: "When this is inevitably shut down by the courts, the [White House] will posture that 'radical judges want illegal immigrants to vote.'" And author Mitchell Plitnick flatly asserted: "The order is illegal. This is Trump testing to see if he can get away with it. Win or lose, you can bet this is only the first volley in a campaign to undermine free and fair elections."
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"When they said 'voter fraud' it meant they wanted to do it," University of Iowa associate sociology professor Victor Ray wrote on Bluesky.
When combing through the full text of the executive order itself, Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic instructor Alejandra Caraballo noticed one line that stood out to her. The order stipulates that the Department of Homeland Security will coordinate with the administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — which is unofficially led by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — to "review each state's publicly available voter registration list and available records concerning voter list maintenance activities."
"Elon Musk would now be in charge of the databases determining voter eligibility," Caraballo wrote.
"I don't say that the law won't stop this and elections won't matter because I'm a doomer. I'm saying this so people understand the moment we're in. We're no longer a democracy," she continued. "People need to accurately diagnose the problem before they can fix it and waiting for the courts or elections isn't it."
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