President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order directing the creation of a nationwide list of verified eligible voters, a move that immediately drew threats of legal challenges from voting rights advocates and constitutional law experts.

The order calls on the Department of Homeland Security, working with the Social Security Administration, to compile the voter list for each state. It also seeks to prevent the U.S. Postal Service from sending absentee ballots to voters not on state-approved lists and requires ballots to have secure envelopes with unique tracking barcodes.

"The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary. It's horrible what's going on," Trump said while signing the order, reiterating his unsubstantiated claims about mail ballot fraud. "I think this will help a lot with elections." The order was first reported by the Daily Caller.

Legal experts immediately questioned the president's constitutional authority to implement such changes. "The Constitution is very clear — the president has no power over elections in the states," said David Becker, a former Justice Department lawyer who leads the Center for Election Innovation and Research. "This will be blocked as soon as lawyers can get to the courthouse." Marc Elias, a voting rights attorney, posted on social media that he would sue to block the order.

The move represents Trump's latest attempt to assert federal control over state-run elections. A previous executive order signed in March 2025 sought to add citizenship requirements to voter registration and mandate Election Day receipt of mail ballots, but much of it has been blocked by legal challenges from voting rights groups and Democratic attorneys general.

Elections in the United States are conducted by thousands of local jurisdictions rather than centrally by the federal government. The Constitution's Elections Clause grants Congress, not the president, authority to regulate federal elections. Research shows mail voting fraud is extremely rare, with a 2025 Brookings Institution report finding fraud in only 0.000043% of mail ballots cast. Trump himself voted by mail in Florida elections last week, according to the Associated Press.