Donald Trump said he will sign an executive order to eliminate mail-in voting and voting machines before the 2026 midterms, days after Vladimir Putin told him US elections were rigged because of postal ballots.
“I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS,” Trump wrote in the lengthy Truth Social post Monday morning, also targeting “Highly ‘Inaccurate,’ Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES” which he claimed cost “Ten Times more than accurate and sophisticated Watermark Paper”.
The announcement followed Trump’s meeting with Putin in Alaska on 15 August, when the Russian president allegedly told him that the 2020 election “was rigged because you have mail-in voting”, according to Trump’s subsequent interview with Sean Hannity.
Trump falsely asserted that the US is “now the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting” and claimed “All others gave it up because of the MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD ENCOUNTERED.”
Data from International IDEA contradicts this claim, showing that 34 countries worldwide allow mail-in voting, with 12 allowing it for all voters and 22 for some voters. Most European countries offer some form of mail voting, and over 100 countries let their citizens vote by mail when living abroad.
US courts rejected numerous fraud allegations after the 2020 presidential election, finding no evidence of widespread irregularities.
Across the US, 28 states let voters request a mail ballot without giving a reason, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Eight states and Washington DC send everyone their ballot in the mail automatically, and about one in five American voters lives in one of those states.
The president’s opposition to mail-in voting comes despite his own use of the method. In 2020, both Trump and first lady Melania Trump submitted vote-by-mail ballots in Florida ahead of the state’s primaries, which Palm Beach county confirmed receiving.
Trump also claimed states are “merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government” and must follow presidential orders on elections. That’s wrong: the constitution gives states control over how they conduct elections.
Mail voting has exploded in popularity – from fewer than one in 10 voters in 1996 to nearly half during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. As of 2022, it was used by about one in three voters, according to a report by the MIT Election Data and Science Lab. Supporters have long said mail ballots make voting easier for people who can’t get to polling stations – those with disabilities, parents with young kids, or workers with long shifts, while also giving voters more time to research candidates at home.
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