San Francisco voters put their mail ballots into a collection box in 2022. Under President Donald Trump’s executive order, the U.S. Postal Service will determine who should receive mail ballots for the November election.

Over 80% of Californians, 13 million in the past general election, vote by mail. So how will these voters be affected by President Donald Trump’s executive order delegating the U.S. Postal Service to decide who should receive mail ballots? Just two months before the election, the answer is, “We have no idea.”

Trump’s order would require the Department of Homeland Security to create a “state citizenship list.” Because elections have always been left to the states, this kind of list has never existed before. Trump’s order then requires the Postal Service to cull that list to create a second one — a “Mail-In and Absentee Participation List.” Although Trump’s order is silent as to how this list is created, only citizens on this second list would get an absentee ballot.

The order also requires the Postal Service to approve the design of ballot envelopes even though it has never done that before. Finally, the order sets forth criminal penalties not merely for those who vote illegally, but for any election official, mail carrier or anyone else who issues or engages in “printing, production, shipment, or distribution of ballots” to an ineligible voter, and prioritizes their prosecution.

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The legal history of this executive order is as complicated as the linguistic gobbledygook with which it’s written. In April, California Attorney General Rob Bonta coordinated a lawsuit filed by 23 states and the District of Columbia to block its........

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