A federal judge in Washington state on Friday permanently blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a 2025 executive order that sought to require voters prove citizenship and that all ballots be received by Election Day.
Oregon and Washington sued over the order last April, separately from 19 other Democratic states that filed their own lawsuit in Massachusetts. The two northwestern states argued that they faced special harm from President Donald Trump’s executive order because they run elections entirely by mail.
The executive order sought to require citizens to provide documented proof of citizenship to register to vote and demanded that all ballots be received by Election Day. It threatened to strip funding from states whose election officials didn’t comply.
In his 75-page order in favor of Oregon and Washington, U.S. District Judge John H. Chun found that Trump lacks the authority to unilaterally order such changes. Chun, appointed by former President Joe Biden, echoed similar rulings in the Massachusetts case brought by other Democratic states and a Washington, D.C., case filed by Democratic organizations and civil rights groups.
“This case is not about whether the states, Congress, or the executive offer better or worse ways to run elections,” Chun wrote. “It is also not about whether the current laws governing American elections could benefit from updates or modifications. And the parties do not dispute the importance of fair elections.”
Statewide election officials in Oregon and Washington, both Democrats, celebrated the victory.
“The Trump administration attacked American elections with an illegal executive order,” Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read said. “Today, we put a stop to that nonsense. This is a win for the Constitution and the American people. Presidents don’t get to rig elections. Period.”
Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said the ruling protects his office’s ability to ensure elections are free, fair and accessible to all voters.
“It draws a firm line between enforcing the law and trying to remake it, and it protects voters and local election officials from political overreach that would have made our elections less fair, not more secure,” Hobbs said.
Oregon and Washington have a long history of pioneering election laws, and advocates for ballot access have long pointed to the northwestern states as a laboratory for modern election administration. Oregon was the first state in the nation to adopt all-mail voting in 2000, while Washington became the second in 2011.
Both states also allow counting ballots postmarked by Election Day, though Oregon election officials in November urged voters to use dropboxes and not mailboxes close to Election Day because of U.S. Postal Service changes that no longer guarantee letters receive postmarks the day they’re mailed.
About 13,500 Oregonians and 120,000 Washingtonians would not have had their ballots counted in the 2024 general election if postmarked ballots weren’t allowed, according to earlier reporting by the Oregon Capital Chronicle and Washington State Standard.
Roughly a third of states allow counting of ballots cast on or before Election Day but received after, Chun noted. The practice dates back as far as the Civil War, when some states allowed soldiers to hand their ballots to military officials on Election Day and have them counted by election officials, he wrote.
“As the Constitution assigns no authority to the president over federal election administration, the president’s authority to promulgate a national ballot-receipt deadline cannot stem from the Constitution,” Chun wrote.
The lawsuit is one of 52 that Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield filed against the Trump administration in 2025. Washington Attorney General Nick Brown had filed 49 such lawsuits by late December.
Washington State Standard senior reporter Jake Goldstein-Street contributed to this report.