California Sues to Block Trump’s Order on Vote-by-Mail

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed suit on Friday to block President Donald Trump’s executive order that gives the United States Postal Service new power to oversee vote-by-mail.

Trump’s order this week is the latest move in his crusade to limit mail voting, which he has described without evidence as a source of “massive cheating” in elections.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Massachusetts, Bonta and nearly two dozen attorneys general argue that Trump is attempting a “shocking and unprecedented power grab” ahead of the 2026 election.

“The president doesn’t have authority over the time, place and manner of elections in the states, and he knows that,” Bonta said in a press call announcing the suit.

Since 2021, California has mailed all registered voters a ballot by default before each election. In the state’s 2025 special election, nearly 89% of voters cast a vote-by-mail ballot — which includes ballots returned to drop boxes, polling places and through the mail.

Trump’s order would require the Department of Homeland Security to send each state a list of U.S. citizens who will be 18 by the next election.

States would then have to send the United States Postal Service a list of eligible voters for the election. Under the order, the USPS would not return ballots from voters unless they appear on the states’ list.

“The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary, it’s horrible what’s gone on,” Trump said on Tuesday before signing the order. The president has routinely assailed mail voting without evidence, blaming the practice for his defeat in the 2020 election. But just last month, Trump himself voted by mail in a Florida election for the state legislature.

Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, called Trump’s order an “extremely alarming” attempt to sow distrust ahead of the election.

“It’s sending a very clear message: if there’s anything we can count on right now, it is that we are going to continue to see these attacks on vote-by-mail all the way until November,” she said on KQED’s Forum.

Bonta said Trump’s order directs the beginning of a lengthy rulemaking process, making it unlikely that it will have any effect on California’s June 2 primary, even in the absence of court action.

“But it could … affect and impact the midterms through the November election and, of course, all the more reason and all the import for us to bring our legal case forward,” he said.

In the lawsuit, Bonta and the other attorneys general argue that the Constitution vests the powers to regulate elections solely with the states and Congress.

“Neither the Constitution nor any act of Congress confers upon the President the authority to mandate sweeping changes to States’ electoral systems or procedures,” they wrote in the complaint.

The executive order is just one of many headwinds facing California’s system of universal vote-by-mail. Trump is pushing for legislation in Congress that would ban states from automatically sending every voter a ballot.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a challenge to state laws (like one in California) that allow ballots cast by Election Day to be counted even if they arrive days later.

At the local level, Bonta is also locked in a legal battle against Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican candidate for governor, over mail ballots.

Earlier this year, Bianco seized ballots cast in the 2025 election in a self-described attempt to investigate fraud.

The state has sued Bianco, challenging his assertion that there was any criminal activity that warranted such a seizure.

The lawsuit is ongoing, but earlier this week, Bianco said he would pause his inquiry.