‘Administrative nightmare’ faces Colorado elections if Trump attack on mail ballots succeeds

A U.S. Postal Service rule proposed as a result of a President Donald Trump’s executive order to limit voting by mail would upend the ability of Coloradans to easily access their ballots ahead of November’s general election.

Colorado is a universal mail-in ballot state, and the vast majority of residents choose to vote by mail. Drastic changes to that system in the same year as a general election would be a massive logistical challenge, election experts say. While they don’t anticipate the executive order will survive legal challenges, election officials and voter advocates have considered how to respond if they do.

The executive order called on the Postal Service to create a rule that requires states to notify the agency if they intend to allow ballots to be sent through the mail. States would have to submit a list of voters planning to vote by mail. The Postal Service would not deliver ballots in states that refuse to submit a list. It would also require that ballot envelopes have a unique barcode that allows the Postal Service to identify which voter mailed the ballot. 

The Postal Service initiated rulemaking to implement the requirements of the executive order, but courts have blocked both the executive order and the rulemaking process. The Trump administration has appealed those rulings, and the cases are ongoing. 

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, Gov. Jared Polis and Attorney General Phil Weiser — all Democrats — submitted comments to the Postal Service opposing the proposed rule. Weiser also joined other states in a lawsuit challenging the executive order that resulted in a judge shutting down major portions of the order. 

“Trump will not be able to use the Postal Service to control which voters receive a mail ballot, and cannot use the (U.S. Department of Justice) to intimidate election officials into following his unlawful order,” Griswold said in a statement after a court enjoined much of the executive order in June. “The Constitution is clear: States run elections, not Trump. This is a major victory for American democracy.”

Griswold’s office declined to answer questions about the state’s preparations in the event the Postal Service rules or other efforts to interfere with mail ballots are realized. 

A popular, proven method of voting

In the 2024 general election, just over 92% of Colorado voters returned a ballot they received in the mail. State leaders have pushed back on Trump’s order, claiming that the federal government does not have a role in dictating how states run elections. 

If the executive order and rulemaking survive the various court proceedings challenging them, it would have a “profound impact” on Colorado’s elections, according to Amanda Gonzalez, Jefferson County clerk and Democratic nominee to be Colorado’s next secretary of state. The rule would result in voter suppression, she said. 

“The problem this rule is claiming to solve is imaginary, and it’s designed in a way that introduces errors and introduces barriers and solves nothing, which only makes me believe that the intent here is to create chaos within our voting systems and create chaos within our democracy,” Gonzalez said. 

More Coloradans choose to vote with their mail ballot because it’s convenient, and they can take more time to research and talk to friends and neighbors about their ballots, Gonzalez said. For the June primary election, Gonzalez said about 98.5% of voters in Jefferson County returned a ballot mailed to them.

“Mail-in voting is proven, trusted, effective. It keeps costs down, and it keeps accessibility up. Whether you are a Democrat, Republican, or unaffiliated, people overwhelmingly choose to participate in this system because it works and because it is safe,” Gonzalez said. “It is incredibly frustrating and disappointing to have the president or USPS furthering these fictions about our mail ballot system, and I don’t think that it serves democracy. What it does serve is their partisan agenda.”

Trump signs order seeking to curb vote-by-mail in bid to control state election laws

Trump has repeatedly claimed that mail-in voting is susceptible to widespread fraud. There is no evidence for that, and fraud with mail-in ballots is extremely rare. Colorado’s post-election audits regularly confirm that ballots are counted accurately.

The Postal Service would need to determine eligibility of voters who sign up to receive a mail ballot, which is “a tremendous departure” from its role of delivering mail, Gonzalez said. Postal Service workers are not election administrations, and inserting them into elections would add more risk to the process, she said. 

“If it was a situation where USPS is refusing to deliver ballots — which is something that I think constitutionally is solidly outside of their jurisdiction to decide — we would, again, see mountains of litigation,” Gonzalez said. 

Colorado has already declined to share its unredacted voter rolls with the Trump administration, and Gonzalez said the requirement to disclose who will receive a mail ballot is another attempt to access voter data. 

Voting centers not equipped to handle every voter

Aly Belknap, executive director of Colorado Common Cause, a pro-democracy group, said the Trump administration’s motivation to upend Colorado’s universal vote by mail system is to depress voter turnout. The Postal Service deciding who does and does not receive a ballot would be “an administrative nightmare.” 

Election officials and voter advocacy groups would need to work to inform voters of other options available to them if they do not receive a ballot in the mail, Belknap said.

“We would be really concerned that it would be a confusing environment where people think they’re getting ballots and aren’t getting them,” Belknap said. 

Beth Hendrix, executive director of the League of Women Voters in Colorado, said Colorado voters need to know that there are “a lot of people” actively working to fight the Trump administration’s efforts to target mail ballots. 

“The idea that we would have to send basically our full active registration roll to the federal government — and who knows what they would do with it — it’s just really terrifying,” Hendrix said. 

Colorado offers early in-person voting 15 days before Election Day, but in-person voting is not as accessible to certain voters as mail ballots are, Hendrix said. Colorado voters approved a universal vote-by-mail system 13 years ago “and it’s been working beautifully since.” The state has continuously made updates to improve the system and “it’s clear that our voters love it.”

“The amount of fraud that happens is so minimal, and it’s prosecuted,” Hendrix said. “These changes are just another way for the current administration to make voting more difficult instead of easier and to limit the number of people who vote.”

The option to vote in person has always existed for Colorado voters, and Gonzalez said it’s an important option to have. But in-person voting centers are not set up to serve every single voter in their respective counties.

To prepare for the possibility of federal interference in elections, Gonzalez said she is over-recruiting election judges in Jefferson County in case they will need more people power. Her office has also looked at cross-training employees in other departments in the clerk and recorder’s office so they can be ready to help the elections division. Another idea they’ve looked at is standing up ballot pickup locations, which would be simpler than a full voter service center, for people who did not receive one in the mail. 

“We’re not expecting anything to happen, and I want people to know that we are prepared, that your election officials are thinking about this, and we are going to get you your ballot in 2026 no matter what happens, and hopefully it is really smooth,” Gonzalez said.