President Trump promised Monday to work to end mail-in
voting and said work is already underway on an executive order to ban it before
the 2026 midterm elections, although the Constitution does not give him this
power.
"We, as a Republican Party, are going to do everything possible that we get rid of mail-in ballots," he said during an Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "We're going to start with an executive order that's being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail-in ballots."
What Did Trump Say?
On August 18, 2025, former President Donald Trump
declared his intent to ban mail-in voting and voting machines before the
November 3, 2026 midterm elections. He said he’ll sign an executive
order to "bring honesty" to the election process, calling mail-in
ballots “fraud,” “inaccurate,” expensive, and incompatible with transparent
elections. He also painted state officials as mere "agents" of the
federal government who must comply with presidential directives.
Trump repeated a false claim that the U.S. is the only country using mail-in voting—though international data shows at least 34 countries, including Canada, the UK, Germany, and Australia, employ postal ballots.
Can He Actually Do That?
No. Legal scholars and courts have already ruled that
the president does not have unilateral authority to ban mail-in voting
or phase out voting machines. Election laws and administration are
constitutionally under state jurisdiction, though Congress does
have some regulatory power. Previous attempts—including a March executive
order—were blocked by federal courts.
Legal experts labeled Trump’s framing—that states are mere
“agents” answerable to the federal executive—as authoritarian fiction,
outside the bounds of constitutional governance.
How Are Others Responding?
- Civil
rights organizations, including the ACLU, warned that eliminating
mail-in voting would disenfranchise vulnerable groups—such as the
elderly, people with disabilities, and those without easy access to
polling places.
- Election
officials affirmed that the mail-in system is highly secure—with
tracking barcodes, verifications, and established safeguards—and have
called banning it a recipe for chaos.
- Democrats sharply criticized Trump’s plan. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer likened the effort to a return to Jim Crow–era voter suppression, and Democratic governors and election officials pledged to resist.
