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President Donald Trump’s effort to gain influence over U.S. elections faced a setback when a federal judge prohibited his directive to restrict mail ballot voting.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, presiding in Boston,voidedthe essence of Trump’s March 2026 executive order — the one that aimed to have the U.S. Postal Service determine who is eligible for a mail-in ballot and warned of criminal charges against election officials who failed to comply.

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The Constitution assigns the responsibility of overseeing elections to the states and Congress — not the president. Trump has been attempting to alter this for over a year.

Talwani stated that the criminal threat clauses were intended to “intimidate” local election officials. Trump, she wrote, has “no authority” to create federal voter lists for the states.

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The decision marks the second legal setback for Trump’s election efforts in two days. The previous day, another federal judgepermanently blockedThe initial executive order issued by Trump — the one in March 2025 that aimed to mandate a passport or birth certificate for voter registration.

“Here we go once more,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D-MI)told NBC NewsAs the administration’s efforts to influence the election intensified earlier this year. “The key point is that the 2020 election was secure, it was easy to access, and it accurately represented the desires of the people.”

In its broader attempt to influence elections, the U.S. Department of Justice filed lawsuits against 31 states for attempting to obtain private voter information — such as Social Security numbers — and has lost all cases that have been resolved thus far, going0-9 in courtThe FBI conducted raids on election offices in Fulton County, Georgia, and issued a subpoena to the Arizona State Senate for documents from its politically aligned review of the 2020 election in Maricopa County.

Congress has yet to take legislative action that Trump was unable to accomplish through executive orders. TheSenate killedThe Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act this month – the citizenship verification bill that Trump claimed would ensure Republicans “never lose an election.”