This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday that sets out a list of new mandates for states to follow for mail-in ballots, or face the loss of federal funds.
The executive order sets new requirements for envelopes and requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to compile a citizenship list derived from federal records and databases that would be sent to each state’s chief election officer.
The president said that when signing the order, it could face legal challenges.
Trump has routinely stated without evidence that there is massive fraud with mail-in voting, even as he has cast votes via mail ballots. More recently, Trump pushed Congress to set up limits to mail-in voting, without any legislative success.
The order, “ensuring citizenship verification and integrity in federal elections,” said additional measures are necessary to enhance election integrity via the United States Mail and reduce the risk of fraud. The order requires states to use unique ballot envelope identifiers, such as bar codes.
“Secure ballot envelope identifiers provide a reliable, auditable mechanism to enforce Federal law without unduly burdening or infringing on the rights of eligible voters,” states the order.
When Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper was governor, he signed the state’s all-mail voting law. In a statement, he said Trump is “throwing everything at the wall to strip Americans of our fundamental right to vote. The truth remains: mail-in voting is safe, secure, and used by both red and blue states alike. This is an illegal attempt at voter suppression that we’ll fight at every turn.”
The Constitution gives the power to run elections to the states. Trump signed an order in 2025 focused on voter registration. It was struck down by the court, which stated the president doesn’t have the authority to change election procedures; only the states and Congress have that power.
Most Coloradans vote by mail
Colorado passed vote-by-mail in 2013, but also offers in-person voting. The vast majority of voters choose to mail in a ballot or put it in a drop box. State audits and hand counts over many elections have confirmed the accuracy of Colorado's vote tallies.
Colorado’s Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold said the order is undemocratic, unconstitutional, and dangerous.
“Trump once again is trying to unlawfully exert influence on states’ elections in an effort to hold onto power in the upcoming midterm elections, this time by creating a Trump voter list. While Trump says mail ballots are illegitimate, he has voted by mail ballot for years. The Constitution is clear: states oversee elections, not Trump. We look forward to this unconstitutional overreach being stopped in court,” said Griswold in a written statement.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a statement: “Nearly all Colorado voters — Democrats, Republicans and Unaffiliated — use mail ballots in our elections. Colorado’s voting system is secure and fair, and we will take legal action to protect Colorado’s elections.”
Weiser’s Democratic gubernatorial primary opponent, Sen. Michael Bennet, also weighed in.
“This attack on our elections is one in which every American should fight,” Bennet said. “We Coloradans, who have the gold-standard election system, will fight this tooth and nail.”
This latest executive order comes as the Department of Justice is suing Colorado and a number of other states to turn over sensitive voter data. Colorado has said it would not comply with a request from the Trump administration to provide voters’ driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.
