Court Rules Trump Overstepped on Mail-In Voting and Kris Mayes Says It Was Never a Close Call

A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump's executive order targeting mail-in voting, and Attorney General Kris Mayes (D-AZ) is calling it a victory for the Constitution.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani ruled Thursday that key parts of President Trump's order are unconstitutional, finding that the president overstepped his authority by attempting to overhaul election procedures that have been run by states and local governments since the country's founding.

The ruling prevents the order from taking effect ahead of November's midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress.

Mayes, whose office was part of the legal fight against the order, was direct in her response. "Court blocks Trump administration's attempt to exert federal control over elections in a case brought by my office," she wrote on X. "The Constitution is clear: states run their elections, not the President."

Real-World Impact

She also pushed back on the real-world impact the order would have had on Arizona voters specifically. Nearly 80% of Arizona voters cast their ballots by mail, she noted, a practice that spans party lines and has been common in the state for decades. "Military families vote by mail. Rural Arizonans vote by mail. Tribal members vote by mail," she wrote, adding that Trump's order targeted all of them.

The order itself had directed the Department of Homeland Security to compile lists of confirmed U.S. citizens eligible to vote and required the U.S. Postal Service to deliver ballots only to voters on those approved lists.

Judge Talwani found that any such list would inevitably be incomplete due to privacy restrictions on government data sharing and that using an incomplete list to threaten local election officials with criminal prosecution was beyond the president's authority.

Mayes closed her statement emphasizing that "Arizona will never allow the Trump administration to seize control of our elections."