US President Donald Trump announced via social media on Monday plans to issue an executive order eliminating mail-in voting and electronic voting machines, calling instead for paper ballots and hand counts.

Trump wrote that “the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them.”

Since states oversee federal elections, the extent of the president’s constitutional power to enforce the measure is unclear, and challenges from states are expected.

Under the Elections Clause of the US Constitution, state legislatures prescribe the time, place and manner of federal elections, subject only to Congressional power to override or modify such regulations. Notably, the clause expressly grants Congress oversight authority in this area as opposed to the president.

Legal scholars have emphasized that Trump’s assertion of federal supremacy in election administration is constitutionally unfounded. In a Northeastern University release, law professor Jeremy Paul noted that the president cannot legally end mail-in voting via executive order and that such changes must be enacted by Congress.

Despite years of claims questioning the security of absentee and mail-in voting, studies and election officials continue to report that fraud is extremely uncommon. A review by the Brennan Center for Justice found that voter fraud rates in the United States remain between 0.0003% and 0.0025%. Pennsylvania officials have emphasized that mail ballot fraud occurs only in isolated cases and has never been shown to affect the outcome of an election.

Trump has also pushed for states to abandon voting machines in favor of paper ballots counted by hand. Election administrators warn that while paper ballots are already widely used, tallying them manually is both time-consuming and more prone to human error. A report noted that in one study, hand counters misread as many as 25% of ballots on the first pass, underscoring why most jurisdictions rely on machines for speed and accuracy. Officials also caution that large-scale hand counts would require significant staffing and funding, potentially delaying results.

In 2022, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld Act 77, a 2019 law expanding access to mail-in voting, ruling that the state constitution does not restrict the legislature from authorizing universal vote-by-mail. The decision reinforced long-held precedent that states have broad authority to implement, oversee, and maintain mail-in voting practices.