Donald Trump announced a 'movement' to eliminate mail-in voting, with false claims of risks to election integrity. Photo / Getty Images
Donald Trump announced a 'movement' to eliminate mail-in voting, with false claims of risks to election integrity. Photo / Getty Images
US President Donald Trump has said he would lead a “movement” against mail-in balloting as he seeks to eliminate a voting method used by nearly a third of the country before next year’s midterm elections.
Trump – who has spent years railing against postal ballots, even though they have benefitedhis Republicans and he has voted by mail – said he would sign an executive order to help bring “honesty” to the midterms.
“I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we’re at it, Highly Inaccurate, Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES,” he posted on his Truth Social platform.
Mail-in and absentee ballots can be counted after election day in 18 states so long as they are postmarked on or before that date. Just over 30% of those cast in the 2024 election were submitted by mail.
There is no evidence that postal voting is less secure than other methods, and pro-democracy groups say ending it could disenfranchise millions of Americans with disabilities and other difficulties turning out in person.
But Trump repeatedly spread misinformation about the practice as he campaigned in 2020 and 2024. After his defeat in 2020, he falsely claimed that tens of thousands of fraudulent mail-in ballots had helped Democrat Joe Biden beat him.
Trump said on Friday that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin – whom US investigators found interfered on the Republican’s behalf in the 2016 election – agreed with him that letting voters send in ballots by mail risked election integrity.
According to Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin said that the US elections were 'rigged' due to mail-in voting. Photo / Getty Images
“You know, Vladimir Putin said something, one of the most interesting things,” Trump told Fox News.
“He said, ‘Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting.’ He said, ‘Mail-in voting, every election.’ He said, ‘No country has mail-in voting. It’s impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections.’”
Trump claimed falsely in his Truth Social post and again at an Oval Office press event on Monday that America is the only country in the world that uses postal voting.
Dead on arrival
In fact, data compiled by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance shows there are 34 countries worldwide allowing in-country postal voting – including Germany, Britain, Denmark, and US neighbour Canada.
Trump issued an executive order in March directing Attorney-General Pam Bondi to “take all necessary action” against states counting absentee or mail-in ballots received after the election, even if they were postmarked by election day.
A judge ruled that Trump lacked the authority to impose state election rules and blocked the edict.
The US Constitution is clear that the “times, places,s and manner” of congressional elections is up to the legislatures in each state and not the business of the President.
Despite his criticism, Trump cast mail ballots twice in Florida in the 2020 primary elections and used absentee ballots in New York in 2018 and 2017. But he voted in person in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
His critics suspect his main concern in seeking to end mail-in voting is that it benefits Democrats, who outnumber Republicans using absentee or postal ballots.
The President was asked about his new “movement” during a press event in the White House on Monday and repeated his claims about mail-in voting being more susceptible to fraud – but also confirmed that he is motivated by the political realities.
“It’s time that the Republicans get tough and stop it, because the Democrats want it,” he said. “It’s the only way they can get elected.”
Chuck Schumer, who leads the Democratic minority in the US Senate, accused Trump of seeking a return to the “Jim Crow” era of the late 1870s to mid-1960s, when many states enforced racial segregation and disenfranchised African Americans.
“Senate Democrats will make sure that any and every measure that would make it even more difficult for Americans to vote will be dead on arrival in the Senate and will continue to fight to protect our democracy,” he said.
