By withholding federal funds and threatening investigations, President Donald Trump has tried to bend universities to his will.

Now, he’s doing something similar: trying to get states to change their election rules.

In an executive order Tuesday, Trump made what amounts to a series of demands on states to change their election laws and policies. For one, he wants states to be more strict at requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration.

Trump also wants states to stop counting mailed-in votes that were sent in on or before Election Day but arrive afterward — in fact, he suggests that counting such votes violates federal law. Most judges and mainstream legal experts think this interpretation of the law is ridiculous, but it has gained steam on the right.

Trump is trying to do all this even though the president has no legal authority to tell states how to run their elections. Indeed, several aspects of his order will likely be challenged in court.

But he’s trying to threaten states anyway, with the pulling of federal election assistance funding and with unspecified action from his Justice Department, in hopes they comply.

The biggest threat of all is implicit — that Trump is setting the stage for a really nasty attempt to use the federal government to dispute election results in states that don’t make the changes he wants. This gives states a tough choice to make: give in now, or have an ugly battle later?

Trump’s demands on states

Trump’s first demand is stricter citizenship proof for voters. He wants to force people registering to vote or........

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