Trump’s election ID, ballot counting rules blocked by Rob Bonta’s lawsuit
Attorney General Rob Bonta declared victory against President Donald Trump on Wednesday in a battle over an executive order that demanded states implement voter ID requirements and prohibited any ballot counting after Election Day.
States, not the federal government, have made those rules, provided they met standards set by Congress.
But directives in Trump’s March 2025 executive order gave the federal government far more influence and were challenged within days by Bonta, who led a coalition of 19 other attorneys general. They said it encroached on states’ constitutional rights to conduct and regulate elections independently.
Chief Judge Denise J. Casper of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts filed a permanent injunction Wednesday that will prevent the federal government from enforcing many of the executive order’s most impactful provisions. Casper was appointed to the federal bench by President Barack Obama in 2010.
Casper’s ruling, Bonta said, “reaffirmed that the power to regulate elections is reserved to the states and Congress.”
It also comes in the wake of accusations by Trump that California Democrats stole votes in the June primary elections, including a claim that mail-in ballots were being “found” in California.
Those allegations were made without evidence, but they’re part of Trump’s wider efforts to cast doubts on the integrity of American elections. Since losing the 2020 presidential election, he has falsely maintained that voter fraud led to his defeat.
“Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” the executive order issued in March 2025, addressed some of the president’s election-related complaints.
The attorneys general challenged several of its directives, including a provision that required state and local officials to collect proof of citizenship from vote-by-mail applicants.
They also challenged a rule directing the secretary of defense to require proof of citizenship from military members voting by mail, and a rule that bans counting ballots received after Election Day. Currently in California, mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Election Day and received no later than seven days after, according to the California Secretary of State’s Office.
If states didn’t comply, Trump’s order said, they would lose federal funding that helps states carry out elections.
Those requirements were put on hold a year ago, when the coalition of attorneys general secured a preliminary injunction that temporarily prohibited federal agencies from enforcing many of the rules set out in the executive order.
Wednesday’s order makes that preliminary injunction permanent.
But elections will remain a key issue for Trump, and he’s likely to appeal the decision, according to White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson.
“President Trump is committed to ensuring that Americans have full confidence in the administration of our elections,” she said in an email to The Sacramento Bee. “The President’s executive order lawfully protects our elections, and we are confident that we will ultimately prevail in its implementation.”
Trump is pursuing his election changes through Congress, too. He has “urged Congress to pass the SAVE America Act and other legislative proposals that would establish a uniform standard of photo ID for voting, prohibit no-excuse mail-in voting, and end the practice of ballot harvesting to secure our elections for generations to come,” Jackson said.
