By John E. Jones III
John Jones knows about voter suppression. Currently the president of Dickinson College, Jones – nominated in 2002 by President George W. Bush and confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate – served for almost two decades as a federal court judge. In that role, Jones presided over a case, filed just prior to the November 2020 presidential election, in which a conservative legal foundation sued Pennsylvania’s top election official, alleging that she had allowed 21,000 dead people to remain on the voter rolls. The group asked Jones to stop those people from voting.
Jones denied the request. “In an election where every vote matters, we will not disenfranchise potentially eligible voters based solely upon the allegations of a private foundation,” he wrote in his memorandum on the case. In this interview with The Conversation politics and legal affairs editor Naomi Schalit, Jones discusses President Donald Trump’s March 31, 2026, executive order to wrest control of mail-in voting from states and give it to the U.S. Postal Service and the Department of Homeland Security; how the constitutional design of U.S. voting bars such federal control; and how Trump’s order would disenfranchise voters and is now the subject of lawsuits by voting rights groups and 23 states.
Article 1, Section 4, of the Constitution says, “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.” When you saw the executive order by the president, what did you think?
My first thought was, this executive order is dead on arrival. It assumes two problems that really don’t exist.
States are empowered under Article 1, Section 4, of the Constitution to conduct elections and set the time, place and manner of those elections.
The president’s March order asserts that states don’t maintain active and appropriate voter rolls. That’s just not true. State after state takes that very, very seriously, and it’s a principle of federalism that states are given the responsibility for conducting elections. This includes maintaining accurate voter rolls, which, despite the noise to the contrary, states have historically done very well.
The second inaccuracy that undergirds this executive order is that there is rampant fraud in mail-in voting. There is absolutely no evidence to show that that is true.
So you have those twin rationales that are, in my view, demonstrably untrue. And as someone who believes that we need to defer to the laws and the Constitution, not to mention find accurate facts, this is deeply troubling. It’s just beyond the president’s authority to do this.
There are other problems. They are less critical but equally fatal.
President Trump said on signing the executive order that “the cheating on mail-in voting is legendary.” So the order gives the U.S. Postal Service the job of determining who may cast mail ballots, in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security. Is that one of the problems you see?
That is not what the post office is equipped to do. I could joke here that they have a hard enough time at the U.S. Postal Service getting the mail delivered. Now they’re supposed to develop a program in concert with Homeland Security so that they could work to disqualify voters because they’re not on the list that Homeland Security provides to them that supposedly contains U.S. citizens. Homeland Security is simply not equipped to do this either. This is out of their skill set as well.
What’s the upshot?
Setting aside all the legal and constitutional hurdles, if this would survive judicial scrutiny, it clearly would disenfranchise voters. We have a country that has an increasing group of citizens who really like to vote by mail – including, by the way, the president of the United States.
And now the administration is in effect saying, “We want to make it really, really difficult for you to vote by mail,” because of these contrived and, quite frankly, false premises that have to do with voter rolls and fraud in elections. There are legal challenges over this order in federal courts in D.C. and Massachusetts. The result will be a legal race to see which of those courts enjoins the policy first.
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Why does anybody have to sue if this is simply not in the president’s power to make happen?
Because if they don’t sue to enjoin this, since these agencies – the Postal Service and Homeland Security – are under the executive branch, they’ll just go ahead and implement this cumbersome and impossible initiative.
Secretaries of state have pushed back against this. In a separate move by the administration, the Department of Justice has asked states to turn over their voter rolls, and many have refused to do so, standing on the principle that it’s beyond the executive to demand those. Various federal courts have backed the states so far. One of the problems with the request is a lack of confidence that the information can be kept safe by the federal government. And states work very, very hard to do that.
When I was on the federal bench and denied the injunction in the lawsuit filed by a conservative legal foundation that sought to take 20,000 plus voters off the rolls, I did so because there was no good proof that they were, in fact, deceased, which is what the suit asserted. Subsequent to the election, at the now infamous Four Seasons landscaping press conference, Rudy Giuliani was waving my decision in the air and decrying the fact that dead people voted in Pennsylvania. That was simply not true.
These types of hyperbolic claims, made up out of whole cloth, stoke fears. This recent executive order is a solution that is looking for a problem that doesn’t exist.
Why did the framers of the Constitution set up a process where states run elections and not the federal government?
Well, first of all the federal government didn’t have the apparatus to conduct elections. And states had been running elections; they knew how to do it. There was a great deal of trust in the states’ ability to run elections. And there was the core debate of federalism, as to what powers states could retain, and they didn’t want to abdicate many of those powers. There was also a debate about the potential for fraud, that if there was a single entity controlling all the elections – that is, if you centralize elections under one politically motivated executive – it’s a really fraught situation which can be abused.
The Constitution is clear, and unless amended, Article 1, Section 4, is – to use the trite phrase – what it is. The power rests with the states, absent congressional action. There is no mention of the president. None. This executive order is thus, in my view, patently unconstitutional, and I harbor little doubt that it will be found to be so.
John E. Jones III, a former federal judge, is President of Dickinson College.
Me says
If Trump and his family can vote by mail everyone else should be able to. The Republican Cult Party are doing what they can to cheat in upcoming elections since we are witnessing the lowest ratings of any President in history.
The rising cost of goods, gasoline and utilities are not the making of the Democratic party but the Republican party.
Trump has broken every promise he made to the people to get elected. So the Republican party can only blame themselves for the loses they will endure in the upcoming elections.
Skibum says
The pedo prez is so dead set against mail in voting… that HE just recently voted by mail, as he has done repeatedly over many years. Just like millions of other voters across America, including myself. But his vote by mail is legitimate, according to the most corrupt person to ever have sat in the WH, while the rest of America’s votes by mail are supposedly fraudulent. You cannot make sense out of nonsense!
Of course, the transparently obvious reason why he hates voting by mail has to do with percentages. More democrat voters prefer to cast their votes that way, while a much higher percentage of republican voters have traditionally voted in person on election day. He completely disregards the millions of voters registered to his own political party who take advantage of mail-in voting. He completely ignores the fact that there are several states that years ago moved to ALL voting by mail.
“What’s good for me, is NOT for thee.” So says the privileged on who thinks he is above the rest of us, despite the plain fact that he is one of the dumbest of us all.
Deirdre says
I wonder if this means DeSantis and Rick Scott (for example) could end mail in voting in Florida, and every other red state.
As I understand it, they’ve changed the law so the day you drop off your vote at the post office is not the day it’s processed, so people will think they voted but it doesn’t count.
How many brown and black people will want to show up to vote in person with ice standing there to intimidate them, and I bet they will! Illegal of course but what else is new. If you have an accent or it’s obvious you’re Muslim you’ve got even more to worry about.
The Trump administration will do whatever it takes to keep these midterms from happening or the votes counting, because they know what’s going to happen if people are able to vote, they’ll be completely disempowered.
This reign of madness will end, especially if our current Congress, including Democrats, that have been bought by AIPAC and serve foreign interests will no longer have their jobs.
Trump and our current Congress are pretty nervous about this or they wouldn’t be going the extra mile to keep our elections from being fair, and the new laws will apply for every election in the future, not just midterms!
Deka says
Serious question, why would any AMERICAN from the “black or brown” community be afraid of ICE?? You are just trying to inflame that concept. Any “black or brown” AMERICAN knows there is NOTHING to fear! Stop trying to create issues.
Deirdre says
You can’t seriously believe there’s nothing to fear if you’re a person of color from ICE, do some research.
They’re targeting these communities and that’s statistically factual and acknowledgedfrom pretty much every source except the government.
Sherry says
@deka. . . Get “REAL” and get educated:
People of color are targeted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) through systemic racial profiling, which has been legally facilitated by recent judicial decisions. Research from the Brookings Institution and ACLU highlights that these practices often equate racial identity with criminal suspicion.
Mechanisms of Targeting
Recent legal developments, particularly a September 2025 Supreme Court order in Noem v. Vasquez-Perdomo, have granted ICE agents the authority to use the following factors when making investigative stops:
* Physical Appearance: Apparent race or ethnicity is now a permissible factor for ICE stops.
* Language and Accent: Speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent is used as a marker for potential undocumented status.
* Employment Type: Agents target individuals in industries perceived to employ high numbers of immigrants, such as day labor at home improvement stores, car washes, and construction sites.
* Geographic Profiling: Stops are frequently conducted in specific neighborhoods or at “roving patrols” in public spaces like bus stops.
Disproportionate Impact on Specific Communities:
Latino Communities: Representing 9 in 10 ICE arrests according to UCLA, Latino individuals—including U.S. citizens—report being “boxed in” by agents and demanded to show documentation.
Black Immigrants: While often “invisibilized” in data, Black immigrants are 6 times more likely to be placed in solitary confinement while in custody. They also face higher rates of stops and arrests compared to non-Black immigrants.
Somali and Asian Communities: Recent crackdowns have specifically targeted Somali residents in the Midwest, and there are reports of Asian Americans being detained regardless of their citizenship status.
Native Americans: Indigenous people in areas like Minneapolis have reported being profiled and detained by ICE agents because they “look like” immigrants, despite being the only minority group not descended from immigrants.
Reported Tactics and Consequences:
Advocacy groups like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund have documented an escalation in aggressive tactics:
Violent Interventions: Reports include agents smashing car windows, dragging people from vehicles, and using “knee-on-neck” restraints during raids.
Targeting Citizens: Off-duty police officers of color and naturalized citizens have reported being detained at gunpoint until they could prove their status.
Erosion of Trust: Fear of ICE targeting has led to a 16% decrease in Latino immigrants reporting crimes to the police, according to the Brookings Institute.
Keenan Hreib says
DEKA, please get your head out of the sand. Pay attention!! American citizens are being killed!!
When you continue to let this behavior prevail unchecked, you then are assured that the wolfs will be knocking on your door in time.
Deka says
You get your head out of the sand, AMERICANS are getting KILLED every day by illegals immigrants that felt they were more important than the folks that were following the law to enter into the USA using our laws!! Why are illegals that did not follow AMERICAN laws still allowed to be here while others that are following the AMERICAN laws are still waiting. It’s people like you have their heads in the sand!
Pierre Tristam says
Deka, you’re safer living next to an “illegal” than to an American citizen, if it’s getting killed you’re worried about, though given your unsubtly racist dig at Mr Hreib I’m not sure reason is your strongest suit. But hey, USA, USA! (I personally liked it better when foreigners chanted USAID! USAID!)
Keenan Hreib says
Thanks Pierre.
Deborah Coffey says
Time for you to get actual news. You’ve been overloaded with lies that tons of data can prove wrong in a heartbeat. What you write are the lies that have been “sold” to your cult.
PaulT says
As an habitual ‘mail in voter’ my uncertainty on the best method of casting my ballots during this year’s electios isn’t just a result of Trump’s executive order.
I’ve lost confidence that the US Postal Service can deliver the mail in a timely fashion, particularly after my property tax payment took ten days to navigate it’s way from the mail slot at Palm Coast post office to the tax collector’s office in Bunnell.
Adding an additional layer of ballot scrutiny by an already haphazard USPS and chaotic DHS isn’t going to help.
Pogo says
Now this
https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-exit-poll-of-muslim-voters-reveals-surge-in-support-for-jill-stein-and-donald-trump-steep-decline-for-harris/
EC: File
Jim says
I do not understand why this is even an issue. The Republicans and Trump scream about voter fraud but they have never put forward any evidence to support that claim. Both Republican and Democrat election officials across this country have consistently stated they have complete confidence in the voter rolls and process. Yet, because we have a president who has shown multiple times per day that he has little to no attachment to facts or truth, this remains an issue.
I’d just ask those who think this is a good idea to look at the facts and then see if you are still concerned. Why should we be wasting time and money on a problem that doesn’t exist? And, since we’re a democracy, shouldn’t common sense tell us all that we want as many eligible voters as possible to participate in each and every election? We should encourage voter participation; not find ways to keep voters out.
Just think for yourself. Just because Trump says something is so, you should be skeptical rather than compliant.
PaulT says
We’re the target not the problem. As you say there’s no evidence of mail in ballot fraud, the problem was invented by the Trump administration, They are currently in power and want to stay there.
Trump’s ‘solution’to the non-problem, his executive order, has the Post Office ‘scrutinising’ mail in ballots and is designed to reduce confidence that your mail in vote will pass muster and be counted. It’s intended to make votin less convenient and deter your vote, regardless of your party affiliation. If the courts don’t act in time to declare Trumps actions illegal, if you are no longer comfortable mailingytour ballot at the post office all is not lost. As things stand every early voting polling station has a drop box for mail in ballots.
,https://makeaplantovote.com/early/
Check the map, find your local drop box then mail your ballot tbere duringg early voting hours and save the postage.
It’s worth the effort, after the next two election cycles we can expect to have out full mail in voting rights restored. .
Atwp says
This is what happens when wrong people are in power. Millions voted for him millions are being hurt by him. He is ruining not running the country. This will happen as long as he is in power.
.
PaulT says
Yet a stubborn 39% of voters still support this populist authoritarian. And a lot higher percentage in Flagler County. It’s hard to understsnd.
Laurel says
That’s the amygdala in charge. The reptilian portion of the brain has no interest in facts or logic. It deals in fear. Fear of brown and black people. Fear of different religions. Fear of women. Fear of gays. Fear of trans. Precisely why facts and logic cannot break through.