Arizona official blasts Trump's mail-in voting order as attempt to 'pick his own voters'

Trump's mail-in voting order faces pushback from Arizona officials

President Trump signed an executive order targeting mail-in voting, but Arizona officials are saying the state already uses these safeguards and warn of constitutional issues. The Arizona Secretary of State is slamming the president, saying it's an attempt to "pick his own voters." FOX 10's Nicole Krasean learns how this order could affect Arizona voters.

PHOENIX - After President Trump signed an executive order on March 31 aimed at cracking down on mail-in voting, election officials in Arizona say they're prepared to challenge this move in court. 

What they're saying:

According to Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, the biggest issue this would create is the continuance of rhetoric designed to make Arizonans skeptical of those working the polls. Fontes is calling the current election procedure in Arizona robust and lawful.

"This appears to be just another attempt for the president to pick his own voters," Fontes said.

What we know:

President Trump’s latest executive order focused on mail-in voting protocol.

"It’s about voter integrity," President Donald Trump said. "We want to have honest voting in our country, because if you don’t have honest voting, you can’t have, really a nation, if you wanna know the truth."

The order requires a list of eligible voters be made in each state by Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration. The U.S. Postal Service would then be tasked with sending ballots only to people enrolled in specific mail-in and absentee lists and to only process ballots marked with specific barcodes.

Local perspective:

Fontes says the state is already implementing these safeguards.

"We already have documented proof of citizenship, we have for 20 years, we have ID at the polls," Fontes said. "This is the law, and we enforce the law, and we already have great elections with a robust vote-by-mail system that has actually won Donald Trump the presidency."

Former Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer says this type of database can lead to false positives.

"People who aren’t on that master list and then the federal government says this person’s not a U.S. citizen and then it turns out this person is a U.S. citizen," Richer said.

The other side:

President Trump seemed unfazed by potential legal action against the order.

"I don’t know how it can be challenged, you may find a rogue judge, you’ve got a lot of rogue judges, very bad, bad people, very bad judges," Trump said.

Dig deeper:

Richer thinks the president will face an uphill battle.

"The United States Constitution delegates authority over election administration law to the states and to Congress and specifically not the president," Richer said.

Why you should care:

Both Fontes and Richer pointed out that the president did cast a mail-in ballot for Florida’s recent special election.