To help journalists report on the high-stakes 2026 midterm elections, the Institute partnered with the Bipartisan Policy Center for a midterm coverage briefing.
BPC Elections Project Director Wren Orey led the briefing, offering insights into the recent executive orders on federal elections.
In addition to the proposed legislation sitting in Congress, President Donald Trump in March signed an executive order regarding citizenship verification in federal elections.
While legal challenges could render the order unenforceable during the midterms, the mandates on mail-in voting bring to the forefront some of the most hot-button election topics.
The executive order notably involves the U.S. Postal Service in verifying voter eligibility, a process that Orey and the BPC says will be challenging to implement due to time restrictions that conflict with the order’s mandates.
The order also requires the USPS to submit a list of voters who are eligible for mail-in or absentee ballots without clarifying how that list will be used in tandem with other citizenship lists that already exist or are likewise mandated in the executive order.
But the bottom line, Orey said, is that mail-in voting is already safe and secure.
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