TRENTON, NJ – New Jersey’s relaxed rules on late mail-in ballots faces a new challenge in the latest executive order signed by President Donald Trump.
President Trump has ignited a firestorm of debate with a sweeping executive order signed on March 25, aimed at overhauling election integrity across the United States.
The order takes direct aim at states like New Jersey, where lax mail-in-ballot laws allow votes to be counted up to six days after Election Day if postmarked on time, a practice Trump deems a threat to the sanctity of American democracy.
The executive action asserts that the U.S. has fallen behind nations like India and Brazil, which tie voter identification to biometric databases, and Germany and Canada, where paper ballots are publicly counted to minimize disputes.
“Despite pioneering self-government, the United States now fails to enforce basic and necessary election protections employed by modern, developed nations, as well as those still developing,” the order states, highlighting a reliance on self-attested citizenship and a “patchwork of voting methods” prone to chain-of-custody issues.
New Jersey, a focal point of the order’s critique, permits election officials to tally mail-in ballots received within six days of Election Day, provided they are postmarked by the deadline, and even accepts unpostmarked ballots arriving within 48 hours of polls closing.
Trump’s directive seeks to end such practices, mandating that all ballots be received by Election Day to be counted. It instructs the Justice Department to “take all necessary action” against non-compliant states and ties federal election funding to adherence to this uniform deadline.
“Free, fair, and honest elections unmarred by fraud, errors, or suspicion are fundamental to maintaining our constitutional Republic,” Trump said, framing late-arriving ballots as an “illegal dilution” of votes cast on time. The administration argues that federal law, including statutes setting a uniform Election Day, supersedes state policies, a stance that has already drawn sharp rebuke from New Jersey officials.
New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin called the order “egregious and illegal,” branding it “the most serious attempt to disenfranchise voters from any President in modern American history.”
Platkin vowed to defend the state’s voting laws, which he says ensure access for all eligible citizens, including those relying on mail due to work, disability, or postal delays beyond their control. “This blatantly unlawful order attacks states’ rights to set election laws and undermines the most fundamental right we have as citizens—the right to vote,” he said in a statement.
The order’s broader implications are staggering. It also mandates proof of citizenship for voter registration, a move critics say could exclude millions lacking passports or birth certificates, and empowers federal agencies like the Department of Government Efficiency to scrutinize state voter rolls.
In New Jersey, where mail-in voting surged during the COVID-19 pandemic and remains popular, the order threatens to upend a system praised by its governor, Phil Murphy, for flexibility.
The state’s grace period mirrors policies in 17 other states and Washington, D.C., including red states like Alaska and Texas.
