April 2, 2026 ~ Detroit Free Press reporter Todd Spangler explains to Kevin Dietz why Michigan officials are calling President Trump’s executive order on mail‑in voting “illegal on its face.”
LANSING ~ Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson gave a firm response to President Donald Trump’s executive order looking to limit mail-in voting.
On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order that would require the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to create a list of eligible voters in each state and for the U.S. Postal Service to send ballots only to voters on this list. In response, Benson made an official statement that read: “This executive order is illegal on its face. States run elections, not the president. The president couldn’t convince Congress to pass his disastrous voter suppression bill, so he’s resorted to this.
“This order will only make it harder for eligible Michigan citizens to vote and will create chaos at every step of the election process,” she continued.
Trump has long been critical of mail-in voting, going back to the 2020 presidential election, claiming it makes elections less secure and more prone to voter fraud. However, there is little evidence that widespread voter fraud occurs due to mail-in voting, with research conducted by the Brookings Institution in 2025 found that fraudulent votes account for only 0.000043% of total mail ballots cast, or about four out of every 10 million mail votes.
