Trump signs order aimed to mail-in voting

President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday aimed at imposing stricter standards for mail-in voting, which he has repeatedly claimed is rife with fraud despite using the method himself just last week.

“The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “We want to have honest voting in our country, because if you don’t have honest voting, you can’t have, really a nation if you want to know the truth.”

The executive order directs the Homeland Security secretary, working with the Social Security Administration, to compile a list of verified U.S. citizens in each state who are eligible to vote. The U.S. Postal Service would then be required to send mail-in ballots only to voters who appear on that list, using secured envelopes with tracking barcodes.

The order is likely to face court challenges, as the president acknowledged, denouncing “rogue judges” who have blocked many of his policies. The Constitution gives states authority over the time, place and manner of elections, while allowing Congress to pass federal election laws, but it does not grant explicit authority to the executive branch over elections.

The move comes as the president has grown frustrated with the Senate’s inability to pass the SAVE America Act, a Republican elections bill that would, among other things, sharply curtail mail-in voting.

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