A Trump-appointed federal judge has cleared the way for Donald Trump to move forward with a controversial plan to create federal voter eligibility lists and restrict mail voting just months before the midterm elections.
The ruling handed Trump a major victory in his ongoing effort to reshape how elections are run nationwide after years of pushing false claims about voter fraud and mail ballots.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, refused to block the president’s executive order creating what critics warn could become a massive federal voter verification system using government databases that are often incomplete, outdated, or filled with errors.
The order directs Trump’s administration to compile lists of confirmed U.S. citizens eligible to vote in every state using federal agency data from places like the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.
It also seeks to restrict mail voting by directing the Postal Service to deliver ballots only to voters appearing on state-approved mail ballot lists tied to the federal verification effort.
Voting rights groups and Democrats immediately warned the move could disenfranchise millions of legitimate voters due to bureaucratic mistakes, database mismatches, outdated citizenship records, name changes, and administrative errors.
But Nichols ruled that opponents had filed the lawsuit too early because the administration has not fully implemented the system yet.
“Given that the Executive Order does not command Plaintiffs to do anything, and that no agency has yet acted pursuant to the Order in a way that could harm Plaintiffs, they have not suffered any harm at present,” Nichols wrote.
In other words, critics may have to wait until the system is actually rolled out — and potentially causes damage — before courts intervene.
Democrats and civil rights organizations argued Trump’s order is unconstitutional because the Constitution gives states and Congress authority over election administration, not the president.
They also warned that federal voter lists built from flawed databases could wrongly exclude eligible voters, particularly minorities, immigrants, military voters, married women who changed names, and elderly Americans.
Election officials have additionally warned that restricting mail ballot delivery through federal directives could create chaos heading into the midterms.
The legal battle is now expected to continue in Boston, where another federal lawsuit challenging Trump’s executive order is moving forward.
Trump signed the order earlier this year after Republicans failed to pass a sweeping federal election overhaul through Congress.
Since losing the 2020 election, Trump has repeatedly pushed baseless conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud and mail voting despite audits, recounts, court rulings, and investigations — including Republican-led investigations — finding no evidence of widespread fraud.
He has also openly discussed “taking over” election administration in Democratic areas.
Now critics warn his administration is taking concrete steps toward doing exactly that.
The ruling arrives as Republicans face growing anxiety about the upcoming midterms, with multiple polls showing voter frustration over the economy, inflation, and Trump’s handling of foreign conflicts.
And with Trump still obsessed with the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him, opponents fear his administration is now trying to reshape voting rules before Americans head back to the polls.
