LDF Denounces Mail Ballot Executive Order

Read a PDF of our statement here.

Yesterday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that would dramatically curtail mail-in voting and create a government-controlled list of Americans eligible to vote. In response, Legal Defense Fund (LDF) President and Director-Counsel Janai Nelson issued the following statement.

"This executive order is blatantly illegal and unconstitutional. It both directs the United States Postal Service to prevent the delivery of lawful ballots and seeks to unlawfully oversee elections. The Constitution is unambiguous: The power to regulate elections lies with the states and Congress, not the president. This order is a stunning and brazen infringement on that authority.

"Despite what President Trump might claim, this executive order is not about election security - it's about shrinking the electorate and controlling who can vote in America. A government-controlled list of who gets access to a ballot and who doesn't is something we see in authoritarian nations, not in the United States, where voting is a fundamental right.

"The premise for this executive order is a lie. Instances of noncitizen voting and voter fraud are vanishingly rare - and President Trump's insistence otherwise is purely an attempt to manufacture a crisis so he can stack the deck in his favor. Mail-in voting is a safe, secure, and effective method that nearly one in three Americans rely on to cast their ballots."

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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation's first civil rights legal organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957, though it was founded under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall while he was at the NAACP. LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) is a division of LDF that undertakes innovative research and houses LDF's archive. In all media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF (do not include NAACP) and refer to the Institute as LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute or TMI.