President Donald Trump wants the U.S. Postal Service to have complete say over who does and does not receive mail ballots from Colorado’s county election officials. And for now, the U.S. Supreme Court has said the president’s attempt to control local elections when they use the federal mail system can proceed.
Coloradans need to start preparing now for the possibility that Trump’s efforts to create a federal screening system for voters fail spectacularly and their ballots don’t arrive. Whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or unaffiliated voter, do not let the White House disenfranchise you.
If a voter’s ballot doesn’t arrive in the mail as expected, voters can always cast a ballot in person at a Voter Service and Polling Center in their county. Early in-person voting in Colorado will open 15 days before election day.
However, the problem is that those centers are not designed to accommodate the more than 3 million voters expected to participate in November’s Midterm election, and even if only a small portion of voters are denied mail ballots by Trump’s new screening system, it could put a huge strain on Election Day.
Counties should start preparing now to open additional voter service centers if lines get long. Trump’s executive order still faces legal challenges and an injunction, but we cannot rely on the Supreme Court to do the right thing. Although the court set a precedent in 2024, saying the court’s role included preventing turmoil during an election, we still worry they will not protect elections from federal interference.
When the justices ordered Colorado to put Trump back on the ballot despite the 14th Amendment’s clear language prohibiting someone who had engaged in an insurrection from holding the presidency, their main justification was this:
“Nothing in the Constitution requires that we endure such chaos — arriving at any time or different times, up to and perhaps beyond the Inauguration.”
Nothing in the Constitution requires that we endure such chaos from the White House — arriving at any time or different times, up to Election Day.
Trump’s executive order has three crucial parts, and all of them have major flaws that promise nothing short of “chaos.”
First, he orders the head of the Social Security Administration and the director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to get together and use their data to create a list of eligible voters for every state. Trump alleges that millions of non-citizens voters are participating in elections, and he sees this as a way to prevent them from voting. Secretary of State Jena Griswold did well to refuse to give Trump voter’s social security numbers in a battle that has gone to court.
However, the data from these organizations could easily exclude eligible voters. U.S. citizens who have recently moved but failed to update their addresses could find their names are not on the “eligible voter” list in their new state even though they have done everything right to register to vote in their new home.
Second, Trump has ordered local election officials to include a barcode on the outside of the envelope that will include voter data to be cross-checked with the new “eligible voter” list the administration approves. Postal Service employees will be tasked with scanning the barcode and ensuring the person is on the list. If a person is not on the list, the Postal Service will not deliver the ballot. This opens up room for error as two systems converge – one based on state voter registration records and one based on a list that is supposed to represent federal data’s records of who would be eligible to vote in the state at a point in time roughly 60 days before the election when it is finalized.
Now voters will be responsible for maintaining their records with the state and with the federal government to maintain their eligibility to vote by mail. If they fail to update their federal records – Trump also ordered the Department of Homeland Security to create an online database where people can check and update their federal records – their ballot will not be delivered.
In Colorado, that will mean the voter who does not receive a ballot by mail will have to vote in person. Fortunately, Colorado has early voting, so there should be time for voters to recognize the mistake and show up in person. But should we find that substantial amounts of ballots are not arriving in mailboxes, tremendous pressure will be put on a system meant to assist the minority of voters who chose to vote in person in Colorado.
All of this is rolling out two months before the election. Only 68 days remain between now and Tuesday, Nov. 3. If Trump were to act responsibly, he’d pause his executive order with the intention of reviving it when there is time to implement it with care so as not to disenfranchise voters inadvertently.
Trump is not acting responsibly, however. He is attempting to solve a very limited problem – non-citizens voting in the U.S. elections — with a sledgehammer when it really needs a scalpel.
It is a felony for someone who is not a citizen to vote in an election.
Every year there are only a few reported cases of non-citizens casting ballots, and usually it was an honest mistake and not a nefarious plot to sway elections. Immigrants are here at the mercy of our laws, and having a felony charge jeopardizes many legal immigration statuses and for those not here legally, it could make them a target for deportation.
We must take voter fraud seriously, but Trump’s executive order will do more harm than good, and we find it likely to be an unconstitutional infringement on Colorado’s orderly and secure election system.
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