Attorney General Ellison sues Trump administration over unlawful executive order attempting to exert federal control over elections
Executive order threatens to disenfranchise eligible voters and violates states’ authority to administer elections
April 3, 2026 (SAINT PAUL) — Today, Attorney General Ellison and a coalition of 22 other attorneys general and one governor sued President Trump over his unlawful Executive Order that attempts to interfere with states’ constitutional authority to administer elections by restricting voter eligibility and mail voting to lists of voters pre-authorized by the federal government.
“Once again, Donald Trump is trying to use powers he doesn’t have to make an end run around our states and our Constitution. His Executive Order on elections is very clearly unlawful because the Constitution grants states, not the federal government, the power to run our elections,” said Attorney General Ellison. “Minnesota has a long and proud history of free, fair, and secure elections that have some of the highest voter turnout in the nation. Meanwhile, Donald Trump and his team tried to overturn a free and fair election simply because Trump lost. I’m taking Trump to court because I will not allow anyone to violate the law and restrict Minnesotans’ freedom to vote, especially not a president who has repeatedly shown he will sacrifice American democracy for his own political gain.”
On March 31, President Trump signed an Executive Order attempting to establish a national list of eligible voters and directing the U.S. Postal Service, an independent federal agency, to transmit mail ballots only to those on the list. In the order, the President threatens states and elections officials with criminal prosecution and the loss of federal funding if they do issue ballots to eligible voters who are not on the national list. The states argue that the order would require states to act contrary to their own voter roll procedures, vote-by-mail systems, and voter registration laws.
State and federal law entitle all eligible voters to cast ballots and have their votes counted in state and federal elections. The states filing this lawsuit permit registered voters to cast their ballots by mail if they meet their state’s requirements for doing so. Voters of all parties, in all states, and of every demographic utilize mail-in voting – including the President himself, who voted by mail in a special election in Florida just last week.
In their lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the coalition explains that the U.S. Constitution gives states the primary authority to administer elections. In contrast, the Constitution does not allow the President to unilaterally impose changes to federal election procedures, particularly without an act of Congress permitting him to do so.
Moreover, the administration of elections is highly complex and requires substantial planning and preparation. The states argue that the President’s Executive Order would require them to upend their existing election administration procedures for upcoming elections and conduct statewide voter education at a dangerously quick pace – potentially within weeks of primary elections and mere months before the beginning of mail voting for the 2026 general election. The coalition argues that such drastic and rapid changes will create confusion, chaos, and distrust in state election systems, all while threatening to disenfranchise eligible voters.
The states allege that the President’s Executive Order violates the separation of powers and unlawfully interferes with states’ mail voting programs. The coalition asks the court to prevent the federal government from implementing or enforcing the Executive Order.
Joining Attorney General Ellison in filing this lawsuit, which was led by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, and Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, are the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and the Governor of Pennsylvania.
