Trump signs ‘foolproof’ executive order creating a national voter list

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(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump signed a new executive order Tuesday ensuring states can crosscheck voter data with federal records and establishing a new verification system for mail-in ballots. 

White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf summarized the order in the Oval Office on Tuesday evening. 

The federal government will provide data on eligible voters to state election officials, “allowing them to properly verify that everybody voting in their elections is legally able to vote.”

Until now, states have managed their own lists, but under the second Trump administration, the federal government has requested access to state lists and performed audits on voter data.

The federal government will also be leveraging the power of the struggling U.S. Postal Service to double-verify the legitimacy of mail-in ballots.

USPS is to “take bold new measures” to verify that ballots are only being sent to eligible voters and that any ballots being submitted are from eligible voters. State election officials will receive a barcode from USPS that corresponds to each eligible voter receiving a mail-in ballot and that barcode will go on the envelope that contains the ballot. 

The order comes early in primary season ahead of midterm elections and after the election integrity bill the SAVE America Act failed multiple times to pass the Senate, despite the administration’s ample promotion.

Election integrity has been a big issue for Trump since he lost the 2020 presidential election to former President Joe Biden. He has repeatedly called it a “rigged” election and suggested he would not have lost had noncitizens not illegally voted, among other claims.

He has issued several executive orders concerning election integrity, including one in March 2025 titled Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections that made other modifications to the mail-in voting process. That order is being challenged in court mostly on the grounds that the power to alter federal elections resides with Congress and the states and not the president.