Trump Scores Mail-Voting Victory—Now California Is Suing Again

California officials are up in arms over a Trump administration executive order that would require California to tell the U.S. Postal Service who should receive a mail-in ballot, with USPS instructed to deliver ballots only to voters on that list.

These new requirements would have an especially significant impact on California, where mail-in voting has become the norm.

More than 80% of ballots cast in recent statewide elections have been submitted by mail, and California automatically sends every active registered voter a vote-by-mail ballot.

President Donald Trump has argued that these changes are a necessary way to maintain election integrity and emphasized the importance of not allowing noncitizens to vote in federal elections.

“The right to vote in Federal elections is reserved exclusively for citizens of the United States under the Constitution and Federal law,” Trump wrote in the executive order, adding that “additional measures are necessary” to enhance election integrity through the mail.

In explaining the rule, USPS cited the executive order’s call for additional measures to “facilitate enforcement of federal law, reduce the risk of fraud, and help protect the integrity of federal elections.”

The Postal Service’s final rule took effect Aug. 21, although court orders initially prevented the agency from implementing the requirements for the 2026 election.

This week, those legal barriers began to fall.

On Monday, the Supreme Court lifted one of the blocks on Trump’s executive order, and a federal judge later lifted the remaining block, allowing USPS to move forward with the new requirements for the November election.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has responded to this development by accusing Trump of “coming for your right to vote.”

“We’re not going to let Trump disenfranchise Americans or rig the rules to his advantage.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has responded by co-leading a coalition of states in a new lawsuit challenging the rule.

In a press release, Bonta called the rule “unlawful overreach.”

“This mail-in voting rule is an unlawful overreach that shows just how far President Trump will go to control elections, but as I’ve said before, this fight is far from over and we are confident that the facts and the law are on our side.”

The fight adds to an already heated debate over election integrity in California, where voters will weigh a voter ID initiative in November as the state races to block the new mail-in voting requirements before Election Day.