OLYMPIA—AG Brown sues to block President Trump’s executive order on citizenship verification and mail ballot tracking.
Attorney General Nick Brown today co-led a coalition of 23 attorneys general and one governor in challenging the President Donald J Trump’s executive order establishing guardrails on voter eligibility and mail-in voting. The coalition asks the court to prevent the federal government from implementing or enforcing the executive order.
“The President wants to control your vote. He wants to tell the Postal Service what ballots they can accept and when. But this is patently unconstitutional,” Brown said. “Mail-in voting is safe and legal in Washington. We will do everything we can to defend it. And come November, despite the president’s lawless threats, we’ll once again use that power to protect our democracy.”
President Donald J Trump signed an executive order on March 31 directing federal agencies to compile lists of confirmed U.S. citizens for each state and to impose new tracking requirements on mail-in and absentee ballots sent through the U.S. Postal Service. The executive order and directs the U.S. Postal Service, an independent federal agency, to transmit mail ballots only to those on the list.
According to the executive order, states and elections officials will face criminal prosecution and the loss of federal funding if they do not comply with the order. The attorneys general argue that the order would require states to act contrary to their own voter roll procedures, vote-by-mail systems, and voter registration laws.
In its lawsuit, the coalition explains that the U.S. Constitution gives states the primary authority to administer elections. In contrast, the attorney generals state, the Constitution does not allow the President to unilaterally impose changes to federal election procedures, particularly without an act of Congress permitting him to do so.
The attorneys general further argue that President Trump’s executive order would require states to upend their existing election administration procedures for upcoming elections and conduct statewide voter education at a dangerously quick pace — potentially within weeks of primary elections and mere months before the beginning of mail voting for the 2026 general election.
The drastic and rapid changes, the coalition claims, would “will undoubtedly create confusion, chaos, and distrust” in state election systems, all while “threatening to disenfranchise eligible voters.”
Brown successfully co-led a lawsuit with Oregon challenging a previous executive order from President Trump taking aim at vote-by-mail states by requiring that ballots be received by Election Day and that voters provide documentary proof of citizenship. A federal judge in Seattle found that the President exceeded his authority and that his actions violated the separation of powers.
In addition to Brown, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, and Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford are leading the lawsuit. Joining them are the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and the Governor of Pennsylvania.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
