April 22, 2026
Mr. Padilla (for himself, Mr. Peters, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Merkley, Ms. Alsobrooks, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Blumenthal, Ms. Blunt Rochester, Mr. Booker, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Coons, Ms. Cortez Masto, Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Gallego, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Heinrich, Mr. Hickenlooper, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Kim, Mr. King, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Luján, Mr. Markey, Mr. Murphy, Mrs. Murray, Ms. Rosen, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Schiff, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Warner, Ms. Warren, Mr. Welch, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Wyden, Ms. Slotkin, and Mr. Reed) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration
To repeal an executive order relating to Federal elections, and for other purposes.
Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Absentee and Mail Voter Protection Act
.
Sec. 2. Findings
Congress makes the following findings:
(1)
Article 1, section 4 of the Constitution of the United States clearly demonstrates that the power to make or alter any regulations regarding the time, place, and manner of elections lies with Congress and the States, not with the President.
(2)
On May 20, 1993, President William J. Clinton signed the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (Public Law 103–31), which was passed with bipartisan support.
(3)
On October 29, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (Public Law 107–252), which was passed on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis.
(4)
The Help America Vote Act of 2002 established the Election Assistance Commission, an independent and evenly divided bipartisan agency to assist States with new standards and improve election administration.
(5)
Neither the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 nor the Help America Vote Act of 2002 provide any authority for any of the actions directed by Executive Order 14399 (91 Fed. Reg. 17125) to create State citizenship lists for Federal election purposes based on unreliable Federal databases or to bar the Postal Service from delivering mail ballots unless States use lists provided to them or approved by the Federal Government.
(6)
Pennsylvania and New Jersey enacted some of the earliest laws to allow voting away from home in 1813 and 1815 in the context of the War of 1812 and many States granted absentee voting for military service members in 1864 during the Civil War. In the early 20th century, States such as Virginia, Indiana, and Wisconsin enacted absentee voting for several reasons. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge and First Lady Grace Coolidge voted by mail according to Massachusetts absentee voting procedures from Washington, DC.
(7)
All 50 States, the District of Columbia, and territories allow absentee voting. As of March 22, 2026—
(A)
28 States (Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming) offer no-excuse absentee voting; and
(B)
8 States (California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington) and the District of Columbia provide universal vote-by-mail.
(8)
More than 28,000,000 Americans voted by mail or absentee ballot in 2016, over 66,000,000 in 2020 during the COVID–19 pandemic, and over 48,000,000 Americans voted by mail in the 2024 general election. President Donald Trump has voted by mail on at least three occasions by his own admission, including in New York in 2018, Florida in 2020, and again in Florida in 2026.
(9)
Vote by mail has been used successfully and securely by members of the United States military for many decades and throughout major conflicts. Hundreds of thousands of members of the United States military and United States citizens living abroad relied on mail-in ballots to cast their vote in 2024 and the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (52 U.S.C. 20301 et seq.) requires all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands to permit covered voters to register to vote absentee, and requires the Federal Government to expedite transmission of completed ballots.
(10)
The United States Postal Service is an independent establishment governed by a bipartisan Board of Governors which has the power to appoint the Postmaster General and exercise postal power, and cannot regulate or refuse to carry State-issued mail ballot envelopes at the direction of the President.
(11)
The Postal Service delivered nearly 100,000,000 ballots for the November 2024 general election and took extraordinary measures to ensure timely delivery of election mail in 2024 and will need to take action in the 2026 election cycle to again ensure timely delivery of election mail, including State-issued mail ballot envelopes.
(12)
Executive Order 14399 (91 Fed. Reg. 17125), issued by President Donald J. Trump on March 31, 2026, entitled Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections
, greatly exceeds the authority of the Executive branch, is illegal and unconstitutional, and would disenfranchise tens of millions of American voters.
Sec. 3. Repeal of Executive Order
(a) In general
Executive Order 14399 (91 Fed. Reg. 17125) shall have no force or effect.
(b) Prohibition on use of funds for similar orders
(1) In general
No Federal funds may be used to implement, administer, enforce, or carry out Executive Order 14399 (91 Fed. Reg. 17125) or any similar order.
(2) Postal service
The United States Postal Service may not use any funds, including funds available under section 2003 or 2011 of title 39, United States Code, to implement, administer, enforce, or carry out such Executive order or any similar order.
Sec. 4. Prohibition on use of funds with respect to certain other activities
(a) National voter registration database
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no Federal funds may be used by the Department of Homeland Security, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Justice, or any other agency—
(1)
to create a national voter registration database or a national citizenship database for Federal election purposes;
(2)
to use existing databases or systems to compile citizenship lists for Federal election purposes; or
(3)
to provide for the national collection of State voter registration lists or citizenship lists for Federal election purposes.
(b) Mail-In and absentee ballots
Notwithstanding any other provision of law—
(1)
no Federal funds may be used by the Department of Commerce or any other agency—
(A)
for any purpose relating to the regulation of mail-in and absentee ballots in Federal elections; or
(B)
to determine the eligibility of a voter to cast a ballot through the mail in Federal elections; and
(2)
the United States Postal Service may not use any funds, including funds available under section 2003 or 2011 of title 39, United States Code—
(A)
to regulate the mailability of mail-in and absentee ballots in Federal elections; or
(B)
to determine the eligibility of a voter to cast a ballot through the mail in Federal elections.
(c) Compelling production of State voter registration lists
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no Federal funds may be used by the Department of Justice to bring or continue a civil action against any State to compel the production of statewide voter registration lists under section 303 of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 (52 U.S.C. 20703), section 303 of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21083), or any other Federal law.
(d) Sharing of voter registration lists
(1) In general
Nothing in section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 20507), section 401 of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21111), or any other provision of law shall be construed to grant any authority to share statewide voter registration lists between any two Federal agencies, or to conduct data matching activities with any such registration lists using any system of records.
(2) Prohibition of funds
(A) In general
No Federal funds may be used by any agency for any activity described in paragraph (1).
(B) Postal service
The United States Postal Service may not use any funds, including funds available under section 2003 or 2011 of title 39, United States Code, to carry out any activity described in paragraph (1).
(e) Definitions
For purposes of this section, the terms agency and system of records have the meaning given those terms under section 552a of title 5, United States Code (commonly known as the Privacy Act of 1974
).