Trump's election order will not impact voting in Virginia's ongoing redistricting referendum

Kate Seltzer, The Virginian-Pilot on Apr 6, 2026

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Several states, including Virginia, are suing President Donald Trump over an executive order that would change how mail-in voting works in federal elections.

The order would not impact the state redistricting referendum. Upwards of 219,000 people voted early by mail according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

The executive order directs the Department of Homeland Security to compile a list of eligible voters to send to state election officials and precludes the United States Postal Service from sending ballots to anyone not on that list.

“Election integrity has always been a top priority for President Trump,” said Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson. “The President will do everything in his power to defend the safety and security of American elections and to ensure that only American citizens are voting in them.”

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones announced Friday the commonwealth is among 23 states and the District of Columbia suing Trump in Massachusetts over what Jones said is an attempt to interfere with states’ constitutional authority to administer elections.

“This is a blatant attempt by Donald Trump to sow confusion and distrust in our democratic processes and to influence the midterm elections for his own personal gain,” Jones said in a statement. “This order does not affect balloting for the April 21 referendum, but if left in place it will disenfranchise voters in the November election..”

Separately, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the NAACP, Common Cause and Black Voters Matter Fund filed a lawsuit challenging the executive order.

“Americans in every corner of our country, rural and urban, Black and white, rich and poor, healthy and infirm, civilian and servicemember, have participated in mail-in voting for decades without issue,” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement. “This executive order sows chaos and discourages voter participation in the midterm elections.”

Rob Weiner, Voting Rights Project director at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said he expected that lawsuit to be heard quickly.

“I think the DC judge will hear them quickly,” he said. “She has already issued an order in the case saying that she wants us to file stuff this week, so she will move very fast.”

Experts say the executive order is unlikely to hold up in court.

“The Election Clause of the Constitution, Article 1, Section 4, gives primary responsibility for setting election policy to the state legislatures and secondary responsibility to Congress,” said David Becker, an election law expert and executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research. “It gives zero responsibility to the president or the executive branch, unless Congress has expressly authorized it through some kind of legislation.”

The national citizen voting list would be compiled using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements or “SAVE” program, which is supposed to help states verify the citizenship and immigration status of people applying for government benefits or licenses. But that program has also flagged citizens.

Former Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order directing Virginia to use that database in developing a state voter list. Gov. Abigail Spanberger replaced that order with one that in addition to rescinding that requirement, reenters Virginia into the Electronic Registration Information Center, a nonprofit that shares voter information between 26 states to ensure only eligible voters vote. It takes into account voters who have moved or died or whom have duplicate registrations in different states.

The Virginia Public Access Project reports that nearly half a million people voted by mail in the state in 2024. In 2022, 285,000 people voted by mail. In 2020 at the height of the pandemic when Virginia first legalized absentee voting for any reason, more than a million voters voted by mail.

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