Josh Shapiro promises to ‘protect’ mail voting after Trump signs order to restrict it and create national voter list
“President Trump can sign whatever the hell he wants to, but it won’t change the Constitution,“ Shapiro said.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro pushed back against President Donald Trump’s executive order to create of a national eligible voter list and restrict mail voting.
“President Trump can sign whatever the hell he wants to, but it won’t change the Constitution,“ Shapiro, a Democrat, said in a post on X Tuesday night after Trump signed the order. ”The authority to set our election rules belongs to the states — and as Governor, I will protect your right to vote. That includes your right to vote by mail."
Trump’s order is the latest of several attempts by the president to nationalize the U.S. voting process and promote his false claims of election fraud.
Tuesday’s directive instructs the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate with the Social Security Administration to develop a list of eligible voters in each state, according to the executive order signed Tuesday. The list — called “The State Citizenship List” — will be compiled from various government records including citizenship and naturalization and the SSA.
It also seeks to bar the U.S. Postal Service from sending absentee ballots to those not on each state’s approved list, although the president likely lacks the power to mandate what the Postal Service does. Trump is also calling for ballots to have secure envelopes with unique barcodes for tracking.
The order is likely to attract swift legal action from officials in Democratic-led states. Shapiro was not explicit in his post on X as to whether he’ll file suit against the Trump administration for the directive. But it wouldn’t be a surprise if he did — the governor, who is running for reelection, has frequently taken the president and other top officials to court over the past year.
If Shapiro takes legal action, he’d be joining other Democratic officials who have already committed to file suit, including in Arizona and Oregon. Voting law experts told The Associated Press that the order votes the Constitution by attempting to take the power to run elections from the states.
Tuesday’s order comes after The Department of Justice has sued 28 states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey for access to voter roll information.
Pennsylvania officials declined to turn the information over, citing privacy concerns.
This story includes reporting from the Associated Press.