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INTERMEDIATE: A conservative legal group urged the US Postal Service this week to implement President Donald Trump’s order on mail-in ballots, saying the USPS has a responsibility to prevent “fraudulent ballots” before midyear.
America First Legal stated in a petition filed with the USPS and obtained by Fox News Digital that the postal service has independent authority to impose restrictions on mail-in voting, including requiring barcode tracking on ballot envelopes and checking ballot recipients against state-approved voter lists.
The petition comes as part of the Trump administration’s broader plan to tighten election security rules over concerns about ineligible voters casting ballots. It aims to increase pressure on the Postal Service to use its regulatory authority to advance those efforts independently as the president’s order faces multiple lawsuits brought by green states and voting rights groups.
TRUMP SIGNS MAJOR ORDER ON MAIL-IN VOTING IN MAJOR PUSH FOR FAIR ELECTIONS
President Donald Trump displays a signed executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, March 31, 2026. The order aims to make it harder for voters to vote by mail. (Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg)
“Federal law gives every interested person the right to petition for decision-making by federal agencies,” America First Legal senior attorney James Rogers said in a statement. “Our petition gives the Postal Service the authority to implement these common sense changes, even in the face of this absurd lawsuit against President Trump.”
The AFL’s request came after Trump issued an executive order last month directing the USPS to work with states on mail-in voting processes tied to government-sent voting eligibility lists, while separately calling on DHS and the Social Security Administration to help states verify citizenship information.
The executive order, titled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in State Elections,” also required the Department of Homeland Security and Public Security Administration to work with states to create a master list of registered voters. This order has become the subject of intense litigation.
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Mail-in ballots were evaluated at the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center in City of Industry, Calif., on Nov. 4, 2025. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Voting rights organizations quickly sued, calling it an “extraordinary and abusive exercise of executive power over the administration of federal elections” and arguing that the Constitution gives the states, not the president, authority over the administration of federal elections.
While the White House imposed the executive order as an effort to strengthen election integrity, other lawsuits, brought by a coalition of blue states led by California, Democratic lawmakers and national Democratic campaign committees, accused Trump of trying to limit mail-in voting. Voting by mail has increased dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic, when states expanded voters’ ability to vote by mail due to what they say is a public health emergency. Trump called the policy changes an effort to “tighten up” the 2020 election, in which he lost to former President Joe Biden.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump protest near the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, March 31, 2023, following reports of a grand jury indictment related to the payments. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)
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“President Trump has repeatedly tried to rewrite the election rules for his own benefit. If only he could ban postal voting – the favorite scapegoat for his defeat in the 2020 election – and impose other voting restrictions, he declared, the Republicans ‘could not lose the race – for 50 years,’ “, one of the charges of the Democratic Committee.
Trump and Republicans have gone after non-citizen voting, which is illegal, and have long said it’s a widespread problem. In addition to his executive order, Trump has been urging Congress to pass the SAVE Act before the 2026 midterms to require identification of people who register to vote, although the bill does not have the necessary support from Democratic senators to move forward.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the USPS press office for comment on the AFL’s request.
