More than 92% of Colorado voters cast their ballots by mail in the 2024 general election and 95% in the 2022 midterm — and a federal court ruling last week left in place a presidential executive order that would put that system under federal control. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee in Washington, D.C., refused May 28 to block President Trump’s order requiring federal citizenship checks on voter rolls and restricting U.S. Postal Service delivery of mail-in ballots. The order remains in effect while legal challenges work through two separate federal courts, including one where Colorado is an active party.
The executive order, signed March 31, directs the Department of Homeland Security to cross-reference Social Security Administration records and compile state-by-state lists of confirmed U.S. citizens eligible to vote in federal elections. The USPS would then be prohibited from delivering mail-in ballots to anyone not on those lists. States and local election officials who do not comply face criminal prosecution and loss of federal funding under the order’s enforcement provisions.
Secretary of State Jena Griswold called the order “undemocratic, unconstitutional, and dangerous” the day Trump signed it. In a press release from her office, she said Trump was “creating a Trump voter list” and noted he has cast his own votes by mail for years. Colorado law automatically mails a ballot to every active registered voter.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser joined a coalition of 23 states and the District of Columbia in filing suit in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts on April 3. “The president’s unlawful executive order threatens the right to vote for millions of Colorado voters — Democrat, Republican, or Unaffiliated — who use mail ballots,” Weiser said in his office’s press release. That case is before U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, who was scheduled to hear arguments June 2.
The constitutional argument runs through Article I. The Elections Clause gives states primary authority over the time, place, and manner of federal elections, with Congress — not the president — holding limited power to override state rules. The multistate lawsuit argues the executive order seizes authority that belongs to the states and cannot be imposed through presidential action alone.
Nichols ruled that Democrats and voting rights groups lacked standing to challenge the order because federal agencies had not yet taken steps to implement it. No citizenship lists have been compiled, no USPS rulemaking has been finalized, and no voter has yet been affected. Nichols wrote that plaintiffs could return to court once agencies act.
Mesa County Clerk Bobbie Gross, State Senator Janice Rich, and State Rep. Matt Soper — all Republicans — defended Colorado’s mail voting system as secure and reliable after Trump signed the order. Colorado passed universal mail voting in 2013, and state audits and hand counts across multiple election cycles have confirmed the accuracy of the state’s tallies.
The USPS was required under the order to initiate a proposed rulemaking within 60 days of March 31 — a deadline that expired at the end of May. That rulemaking, once filed, gives plaintiffs the concrete agency action needed to return to court and seek an injunction before Colorado’s November 2026 general election.
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