Current and former Republican elections officials said Sunday they expect President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting mail-in voting to be overturned.
Speaking to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week,” Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt and former Maricopa County, Arizona Recorder Stephen Richer said they expect the litigation challenging the order to be sustained.
“We want voters to know that the election will be free, fair, safe and secure and that everyone knows what the rules are before they go in,” Schmidt said. “So confusion is never a positive thing unless you’re trying to create distrust in the outcome of the election.”
The sweeping order, which orders the creation of a national list of approved absentee voters and directs the attorney general to investigate the misdelivery of mail-in ballots, marked a significant escalation in Trump’s efforts to consolidate election authority ahead of the midterms.
At least four lawsuits have already been filed over the order, including one filed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries along with the Democratic Party apparatus. Another petition filed by 23 states, including Arizona and Pennsylvania governors Josh Shapiro, also argued that the order violates Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution, and asked a federal judge to get involved.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the order was designed to “try to suppress voters” and “change the landscape” to help Republicans maintain control of Congress.
He told Stephanopoulos, “We will work as hard as we can to make sure this is a free and fair election.” “That executive order is illegal and unconstitutional. We have already filed suit, and we expect it to be declared void by the courts shortly.”
The Trump administration has taken steps in recent months to unravel the results of the 2020 presidential election, with the FBI seizing voter records from Fulton County, Georgia, and Maricopa County, Arizona – both the focus of debunked conspiracy theories about voter fraud in the election. Multiple audits and independent reviews have found no credible evidence of widespread fraud in the election.
Richer — who served as Maricopa County’s top elections official from 2021 to 2025 — said Trump’s crackdown on mail-in voting was unnecessary because Arizona already has “some of the built-in features that President Trump wants in all elections,” including proof-of-citizenship requirements and ballot-tracking technology.
“While I agree with some of the elements and some of the aspirations of the executive order, the form of it matters,” he said.
Richter said he was skeptical that Trump’s efforts to recount the results of the 2020 election would have any success, urging his fellow Republicans to stand up to political pressure.
“The Arizona Attorney General has previously spent more than 10,000 hours investigating Arizona, but this appears to be a trend,” he said, adding that the order “is going to cast further doubt into the election process.”
