‘Phantom threats of ineligible voters’: Josh Shapiro, Al Schmidt rebuke Trump’s order that seizes election powers from states

Top officials in Pennsylvania are pushing back on President Donald Trump’s executive order to create a national eligible voter list and restrict mail voting, a move that election experts are calling a violation of the Constitution.

“Our right to vote is sacred,” Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt said. “I’ll continue to ensure that it’s not impeded by needless barriers justified by phantom threats of ineligible voters casting ballots.”

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.

Schmidt served as Philadelphia’s Republican commissioner during the 2020 election when Trump spread conspiracy theories about mail voting both in the lead-up and aftermath of his loss in Pennsylvania. Schmidt was tapped by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro to oversee the state’s election in 2023 and has repeatedly pushed back on Trump’s claims about electoral improprieties in Pennsylvania. .

Tuesday’s presidential 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.

Shapiro, a Democrat, spoke against Trump’s executive order in several social media posts on Tuesday night and Wednesday.

“President Trump can sign whatever the hell he wants to, but it won’t change the Constitution,“ Shapiro said. ”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."

Schmidt also emphasized that the Constitution gives states the authority to administer elections and said millions of Pennsylvanians across party lines vote by mail.

“Pennsylvania’s elections have never been more safe and secure, as verified by two different audits conducted by counties of the voter-verified paper ballots after every election,” he said.

A sizable chunk of the electorate from both parties votes by mail in Pennsylvania, but it’s a more popular method among Democrats.

In the 2024 general election, nearly 37% of Pennsylvanians who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris did so by mail. Meanwhile, less than 19% of Trump voters utilized mail voting.

Trump has voted by mail, including in last month’s Florida special election.

Trump’s order is likely to attract swift legal action from officials in Democratic-led states. Shapiro was not explicit in his statements as to whether he’ll file suit against the Trump administration, but he appears to be hinting at one.

Shapiro, 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 in other states who have already committed to file suit. Voting law experts told the Associated Press that the order violates the Constitution by attempting to take the power to run elections from the states.

Omar Sabir, the Democratic chair of the Philadelphia City Commissioners, said constituents have been calling his office confused about the impact of Trump’s order. He said he’s been assuring them that it does not impact the May 19 primary election, when Democratic primary voters are set to choose a successor to retiring U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans.

“When there’s confusion, people won’t participate in the election process, and that’s a concern of mine,” he said.

As for the general election, Sabir said the commissioners are consulting with legal counsel and monitoring the situation, but they believe Trump’s order is illegal.

Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia, a Democrat who also sits on the swing county’s Board of Elections, told The Inquirer that the Bucks County solicitor is considering joining other counties in filing a lawsuit.

“We are at the table and we would be the first in line to sign on to any of them,” she said.

In Montgomery County, officials are also mulling the decision, said Commissioner Neil Makhjia, a Democrat who chairs the county Board of Elections. He also said the county will continue to make concerted efforts to to dispel misinformation surrounding mail voting.

“Counties are responsible for administering elections,” Makhija said. “This is an attempt by the federal government to nationalize and take over our election process.”

Tuesday’s order comes after the Department of Justice sued 28 states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey, for access to voter roll information.

Pennsylvania officials said they declined to turn voter roll information to the DOJ last summer because of privacy concerns.

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat who began her term in January, defended that state’s mail voting and warned that Trump’s order would make it harder for eligible voters to receive their ballots.

“Our vote-by-mail system works,” she said. “Millions of New Jerseyans — Republicans, Democrats, and unaffiliated voters alike — rely on it. The president himself has cast ballots by mail.”

Andrew McGinley, vice president of policy at the Committee of Seventy, a nonpartisan good-government organization, said Tuesday’s executive order is part of a yearslong trend of falsely sowing doubt into U.S. elections.

“Noncitizen voting is already illegal. It’s incredibly rare. We have never seen any evidence of widespread voter fraud that would overturn the election result,” McGinley said. “And so we’re just creating these solutions to problems that just don’t exist.”

This story includes reporting from the Associated Press.