2 Republican Election Officials Say Trump’s Mail-in Voting Order Will Be Overturned

Current and former Republican election officials said Sunday they anticipate President Donald Trump’s executive order aiming to limit mail-in voting will be overturned.

Speaking to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week,” Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt and former Maricopa County, Arizona Recorder Stephen Richer said they expect litigation challenging the order will prevail.

“We want voters to know that the election is going to be free, fair, safe and secure, and that everyone knows what the rules are prior to going into this,” Schmidt said. “So confusion is never a positive thing unless you are seeking to sow distrust in the outcome of an election.”

The sweeping order, which orders the creation of a national list of approved absentee voters and directs the attorney general to investigate wrongful distribution of mail-in ballots, marked a significant escalation of Trump’s attempts to consolidate election authority ahead of the midterms.

The order has already drawn at least four lawsuits, including one filed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries along with the Democratic Party apparatus. Another, filed by 23 states including Arizona and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, likewise argued the order violates Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution, and asked a federal judge to enjoin it.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the order was “designed to try to suppress the electorate” and “alter the landscape” to help Republicans keep control of Congress.

“We're going to work as hard as we can to make sure that this is a free and fair election,” he told Stephanopoulos. “That executive order is unlawful and unconstitutional. We've already filed litigation, and we expect that it will be declared so in short order by the courts.”

The Trump administration has taken steps to relitigate the results of the 2020 presidential election in recent months, with the FBI seizing voter records from Fulton County, Georgia, and Maricopa County, Arizona — both centerpieces of debunked conspiracy theories about voter fraud in the election. Numerous audits and independent reviews have found no credible evidence of widespread fraud in the election.

Richer — who served as Maricopa County’s top elections official from 2021 to 2025 — said Trump’s crackdown on mail-in voting was unnecessary because Arizona already has “some of the underlying features that President Trump aspires to have in all elections,” including proof-of-citizenship requirements and ballot-tracking technology.

“While I agree with some of the elements in the executive order and some of the aspirations, the form does matter,” he said.

Richer said he doubted Trump’s efforts to relitigate the results of the 2020 election would see any success, urging his fellow Republicans to stand up to political pressure.

“The attorney general of Arizona previously spent over 10,000 man hours investigating Arizona, but this seems to be a trend," he said, adding that the order was likely "to sow further doubt in the election process.”