The President issued an executive order in March focused on mail-in voting and the Postal Service.
Posted by The Lawfare Podcast, Checked
- Sources
- 4 support2 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 93%
The Lawfare PodcastOct 8, 2026
Multiple reliable sources confirm that President Trump signed an executive order on March 31, 2026 that directed the Postal Service to restrict mail-in ballots and tied them to eligibility lists, matching the claim. The post's wording matches the extracted claim, and the later Reuters fact-check concerns only the absence of a new order, not the March order itself.
A guest makes this claim. Listeners heard it, so it counts against the post, and on the guest's own record.
What was said
… too okay after the election, but I think we should feel reasonably good about all the kind of SAVE Act related stuff, ranging from mail in voting to sort of changing other requirements ahead of the election and making it more difficult for people to vote. So, of course, on this voting executive order that the President put out in March, that focused largely, or kind of what people viewed as the most nefarious part of which had to do with mail-in voting and the Postal Service not transmitting some people's ballots, the Supreme Court said you can't do that, at least for the midterms, and that doesn't really answer whether we should still be worried about that kind of thing for 20 28, but does show that we're good for the midterms. …
The Lawfare Podcast · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. The White House fact sheet says Trump signed an Executive Order on March 31, 2026 on citizenship verification and on modernizing and securing mail-in and absentee ballot procedures through the USPS.[3]
Supports. The Federal Register notice identifies Executive Order 14399, issued March 31, 2026, and describes the Postal Service's rulemaking to implement it for mail-in and absentee ballots in federal elections.[4]
Supports. AP reports that Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday, March 31, to restrict mail-in voting and bar the Postal Service from sending absentee ballots to people not on approved state lists.[1]
Supports. The New York Times describes a March 31 executive order directing the Postal Service to deliver ballots only in states that hand over voter data.[5]
Context. Reuters fact-checked social media posts claiming a new executive order was issued in September; it found no new order, but confirmed the original order was signed March 31. The post's March reference is therefore accurate.[2]
Context. The Supreme Court blocked the USPS rule implementing the order in September, a later development that does not change whether the March order was issued.[6]
Sources
6 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 2 primary, 2 tier 2
- 1Trump signs order directing creation of a national voter listapnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 2Fact Check: No new executive order on Trump's mail-in ballot restrictionsreuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
- 3Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Ensures Citizenship ...whitehouse.gov · primary source · cited for: supports
- 4Postal Servicefederalregister.gov · primary source · cited for: supports
- 5Where Does Trump's Effort to Restrict Mail Voting Stand?nytimes.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports
- 6Five Takeaways From ProPublica’s Midterm Election Coverage ...propublica.org · tier 2 · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
- Donald Trump signed an executive order in March that directed the Post Office and other government departments to create a plan to secure mail-in balloting.True
- The President issued an executive order in March 2026 directing the Postmaster General to initiate a rulemaking process regarding mail-in and absentee ballots.True
- President Trump signed an executive order in the spring of 2026 seeking to restrict mail-in voting.True
- In March 2026, the president signed an executive order that ended the right for all US citizens to vote by mail.False
- Donald Trump signed an executive order in March 2026 that ended the right for all US citizens to vote by mail in elections.Mixed