WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee and former California Secretary of State, along with Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), led a group of 20 Senate Democrats in pushing back on President Trump’s Executive Order attacking vote-by-mail.
In a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Senators encouraged the DOJ to refocus on protecting voters and access to ballot box, as well as requested production of any opinions, correspondence, or documents related to Trump’s latest Executive Order.
“[This EO] is another attempt by the President to exceed the constitutional authorities granted to the Executive Branch concerning federal elections,” the Senators wrote. “Given the clearly unconstitutional nature of this EO, the Department of Justice (DOJ) should take no steps pursuant to the EO that violate the law and risk disenfranchising eligible voters. We further request that DOJ provide us with all legal opinions drafted by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), and any other DOJ correspondence or documents concerning any claims regarding the legality of the EO, including any communications between senior DOJ officials and the Department of Commerce.
“For over a decade, the President has sought to sow doubt in our electoral system, baselessly attempting to make the case that the only secure elections are those that he wins. This behavior is not only unbefitting of his office, but also hypocritical,” the Senators continued, citing Trump’s own use of vote-by-mail.
“Article I, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution clearly indicates that states have the primary authority over election administration. Nonetheless, President Trump has repeatedly sought to restrict access to the ballot under the guise of election security… Taken together, the foreseeable result of these directives is that tens of thousands of eligible U.S. citizen voters will be disenfranchised,” the Senators further wrote, citing the EO’s unconstitutionality and vulnerabilities.
The Senators highlighted the disruption this would cause not only to voters, but also the ongoing gutting of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, “Besides the disruption it would cause for mail-in voters, the President’s order would also further corrupt the mission of the DOJ Civil Rights Division to protect civil rights and ensure that all eligible voters are able to exercise their right to vote. Since January 2025, DOJ has been gutted—morally and physically. Within one year, the Civil Rights Division lost 75 percent of its attorneys, and it has been reported that 55 major civil rights cases concerning racial gerrymandering and police misconduct were closed as the Division prioritized Second Amendment and anti-trans cases. More broadly, DOJ seems wholly disinterested in enforcing the law, dropping an estimated 23,000 criminal investigations in the first six months of President Trump’s second Administration to focus on immigration enforcement.
“DOJ should reprioritize protecting the ability of all eligible voters to fairly and accessibly exercise their fundamental right to vote. Protecting civil rights was a foundational purpose for establishing DOJ, and ensuring legal access to voting remains a key responsibility of DOJ leadership,” the Senators concluded, condemning this effort before making a request for document production. “As such, we urge you to ensure that the Department does not implement this unlawful executive order.”
In addition to Padilla, Durbin, Peters, and Schumer, the letter was also signed by U.S. Senators Kristin Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Jeffrey Merkley (D-Ore.), Angus King (D-Maine), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.).
As Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee with oversight over federal elections, Padilla has consistently challenged Trump’s illegal efforts in attacking the right to vote, especially through vote-by-mail. In response to Trump’s unlawful Executive Order, Padilla introduced Absentee and Mail Voter Protection Act, which would nullify Trump’s EO and place restrictions on the administration’s attempts to implement any unlawful voter restrictions. Padilla also took to the Senate floor four times as a leader in the Democratic opposition to the anti-voter SAVE Act. In April, Padilla and Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), led six Senators in expressing serious concerns about the harmful impacts to American voters of the Trump Administration’s plans to privatize the United States Postal Service (USPS) and move it under the control of the Department of Commerce.
In January, Padilla and Senator Merkley led their Senate colleagues in a letter to Postmaster General David Steiner, opposing the postmark policy under the Trump Administration that would make it harder for Americans to vote-by-mail. The USPS decision to delay postmarks would significantly increase voter disenfranchisement, as many states rely on postmarks to determine ballot eligibility.
Full text of the letter is available here and below:
Dear Acting Attorney General Blanche:
On March 31, President Trump signed an executive order (EO), entitled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections,” which is another attempt by the President to exceed the constitutional authorities granted to the Executive Branch concerning federal elections.1 Given the clearly unconstitutional nature of this EO, the Department of Justice (DOJ) should take no steps pursuant to the EO that violate the law and risk disenfranchising eligible voters. We further request that DOJ provide us with all legal opinions drafted by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), and any other DOJ correspondence or documents concerning any claims regarding the legality of the EO, including any communications between senior DOJ officials and the Department of Commerce.
For over a decade, the President has sought to sow doubt in our electoral system, baselessly attempting to make the case that the only secure elections are those that he wins. This behavior is not only unbefitting of his office, but also hypocritical. For example, while the President has condemned the practice of voting by mail, he still mailed in his own ballot during a recent special election in Florida.2 Notwithstanding the wild fabrications about widespread voter fraud coming from the White House, it is imperative that, as our nation’s chief law enforcement official, you uphold the rule of law and not implement this unlawful executive order and its enforcement provisions.
Article I, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution clearly indicates that states have the primary authority over election administration.3 Nonetheless, President Trump has repeatedly sought to restrict access to the ballot under the guise of election security. The recent EO disregards federalism and the constitutional right to vote and instead deems the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA) arbiters of citizenship using data that even DHS itself has admitted contains numerous errors, empowering them to compile a list of approved voters with scarcely any oversight.4 The EO also tasks the United States Postal Service (USPS) with only delivering ballots from voters to election officials that are on the Administration’s approved list of voters and directs the Attorney General to prioritize investigating and prosecuting a wide variety of actors involved in activities as innocuous as printing a ballot that is distributed to individuals the Administration determines are not eligible to vote. Furthermore, the printing, sending, and returning of mail and absentee ballots by voters for federal primary and special elections has been ongoing across the country for months prior to the general election in just over six months. Taken together, the foreseeable result of these directives is that tens of thousands of eligible U.S. citizen voters will be disenfranchised.
Contrary to President Trump’s erroneous claims, state and local election officials already have measures in place to ensure that only registered voters are able to vote. In fact, noncitizens rarely successfully cast ballots in U.S. elections. A Bipartisan Policy Center analysis of the Heritage Foundation’s Election Fraud Database only found 77 such instances from 1999 to 2023 out of hundreds of millions of votes.5 And nonpartisan experts concluded that only 0.000043 percent of mail-in ballots cast in federal general elections from 2016 to 2022 were fraudulent.6 That is only four cases out of every 10 million votes cast through the mail.
In addition to the obvious constitutional issues presented by the executive order, Section 2 is especially concerning, as it directs you to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of election officials if ineligible voters receive—not cast—ballots. As a result, the EO risks imposing criminal liability on election administrators, even absent clear evidence of intent to enable illegal voting. Additionally, Section 5 directs you to withhold federal funds from states and localities that fail to comply with the order. While the text does not specify which provisions are at issue, federal courts have repeatedly rejected as unlawful the practice of defunding localities simply because of policy differences.7
Besides the disruption it would cause for mail-in voters, the President’s order would also further corrupt the mission of the DOJ Civil Rights Division to protect civil rights and ensure that all eligible voters are able to exercise their right to vote. Since January 2025, DOJ has been gutted— morally and physically. Within one year, the Civil Rights Division lost 75 percent of its attorneys, and it has been reported that 55 major civil rights cases concerning racial gerrymandering and police misconduct were closed as the Division prioritized Second Amendment and anti-trans cases.8 More broadly, DOJ seems wholly disinterested in enforcing the law, dropping an estimated 23,000 criminal investigations in the first six months of President Trump’s second Administration to focus on immigration enforcement.9
As Acting Attorney General, you have sworn an oath to defend the Constitution. This EO is clearly at odds with that responsibility. New polling shows that 58 percent of Americans believe that many people will be told they are ineligible to vote when they arrive to the polls this November.10 This 16-point rise from January 2020 is alarming but entirely predictable, given the President’s concerted misinformation campaign regarding voter fraud.
DOJ should reprioritize protecting the ability of all eligible voters to fairly and accessibly exercise their fundamental right to vote. Protecting civil rights was a foundational purpose for establishing DOJ, and ensuring legal access to voting remains a key responsibility of DOJ leadership. As such, we urge you to ensure that the Department does not implement this unlawful executive order.
It is imperative that we understand the Department’s role in justifying this unlawful order. Through the Office of Legal Counsel, the Department of Justice reviews all executive orders “proposed to be issued by the President … for form and legality.”11 Please provide any DOJ or OLC opinions, correspondence, or other documents related to DOJ’s evaluation of the legality of this EO; communications between senior DOJ officials, including Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon and Acting Voting Section Chief Eric Neff, with the Department of Commerce, including Secretary Howard Lutnick’s office; and, if none exist, please explain why this is the case. We request that you comply with this request no later than May 15.
We look forward to your prompt response.
Sincerely,