Fox contributor questions the legality of Trump's voting executive order
Karl Rove: “If a president can make these kind of changes without going to the Congress and having the benefit of the law and a constitutional review, then you're setting yourself up for something weird to happen in the future”
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From the March 27, 2025, edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom
KARL ROVE (FOX CONTRIBUTOR): The question is does the president have the authority, by an executive order, to require the states to do these things? Some states require already that absentee ballots, mail-in ballots be received by Election Day. Others allow them to be postmarked by Election Day and received up to three or five days afterwards. Military mail-in ballots are habitually arrive after Election Day because they're making their way from U.S. bases in Europe or Asia or Africa. So, the question is going to be: can the president do this by his authority alone? We're going to see this tested quickly, I suspect, in the courts and it's going to be a real question, I think, whether or not he has the authority to dictate this to the states, given the fact that the Constitution gives the authority of election laws to the individual states. So, we'll see rather soon, but there's a court battle coming, no ifs, ands, or buts.
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DANA PERINO (CO-ANCHOR): On the legality of it, that's one thing. And that should stand, depending on whatever the law is and the courts decide. But, the popularity of this is really through the roof, and then that includes with Black voters, Hispanic voters, across the board, Karl.
ROVE: Right. Voter I.D. is very popular, widely accepted. I suspect we don't have a lot of polling on the issue of proving U.S. citizenship, but we would have that as well. But, think about this, if a president can have, through an executive order, make widespread changes like you have to have your absentee ballot in the hands of the election officials by Election Day. If a president can do that by an E.O., what about a liberal president? Can they come in and say, 'well, you know what? Every state has to send a ballot, a mail-in ballot to every person on their voter registration list and you can receive absentee ballots, mail-in ballots up to five or six days after the election and you can't require a signature on, you know, signature verification and blah blah blah blah blah.' This is going to be a very thorny question for the courts to decide. But, just remember the shoe is on one foot today, it might be on another foot later. If a president can make these kind of changes without going to the Congress and having the benefit of the law and a constitutional review, then you're setting yourself up for something weird to happen in the future.