5. No Funds Unless You Obey – Trump’s Ballot Deadline Ultimatum Blocked

Section 7(b) of Trump’s Executive Order took a sharp turn toward coercion. It declared that the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) must withhold election funding from states unless they adopted a strict “Election Day” deadline for receiving all ballots—regardless of state law. The threat was simple: follow Trump’s deadline, or lose your federal money.

But there was one big problem: the president doesn’t control the purse strings—Congress does.

In its ruling, the court made clear that the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which created these funds, never gave the EAC—or the president—the authority to make ballot deadlines a funding condition. States are legally entitled to this money under specific rules written by Congress. Trump’s demand inserted an entirely new requirement that didn’t exist in the law.

The danger wasn’t just legal—it was practical. States were faced with the prospect of losing millions in federal support just for following their own laws. This would have thrown elections into chaos, especially in places that allow ballots mailed by Election Day to arrive a few days later.

The court ruled that conditioning funds on a presidentially imposed ballot deadline violated the separation of powers and disregarded the law’s original purpose: improving elections, not manipulating them. It was a classic example of executive overreach—and it didn’t survive judicial scrutiny.