President Donald Trump is pushing for a national voter list as part of an executive order on elections a week after his administration told a Maine court there would not be one.
The order from the Republican president comes as Maine and 28 other states fight the federal push for voter data and ahead of the midterm elections. The order calls on the Department of Homeland Security to compile and send to states a list of citizens eligible to vote. It also seeks to establish “uniform standards” for mail and absentee ballots.
Trump’s order is prompting a strong reaction from Maine officials. In a federal court hearing in the Justice Department’s case for access to Maine’s voter rolls last week, a lawyer said his agency “is not creating a nationwide voter registration database.”
The president’s executive order distinguishes the state citizenship lists from voter registration, noting identification on the list “does not indicate that the individual has been properly registered to vote.” But Democratic leaders in Maine and several legal experts said the order marked an attempt to create a national list for voter eligibility and to control mail voting.
“We are not complying with this executive order,” Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who is also a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, said in an interview. “The federal government doesn’t get to decide who votes in Maine. They don’t get to decide who gets to mail in ballots.”
Bellows, who rejected the DOJ’s request for voter data last summer, is one of a handful Democratic gubernatorial candidates touting efforts to combat Trump as they vie to replace outgoing Gov. Janet Mills..
“The president’s outrageous executive order is another unconstitutional attempt to suppress votes and seize control of our elections,” Mills, who is running for the chance to challenge five-term Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, said in a statement.
The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement that election integrity has “always been a top priority for President Trump.”
“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,” she said.
The case over Maine’s voter rolls is being heard by U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker, who seemed skeptical of the federal governor’s case in oral arguments last week in Portland. But he was also critical of a state attorney after he raised the possibility of a national voter list, calling that idea “shadow boxing” in the face of federal statements to the contrary.
Both Mills and Bellows have made their opposition to Trump major themes of their key 2026 political campaigns, but states of all political stripes are fighting the Trump administration’s requests for voter rolls, including Republican-led New Hampshire.
“New Hampshire has long exercised that authority in a manner that ensures elections are secure, transparent, and trustworthy,” Secretary of State David Scanlan, a Republican, said in a Wednesday statement responding to Trump’s executive order.
