Topline
President Donald Trump said he will launch an effort to do away with mail-in ballots and voting machines ahead of next year’s midterm elections, calling them a “hoax” and a “total disaster,” despite urging his supporters to vote early in the 2024 election.
Trump said Monday on Truth Social he would sign an executive order “to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections” by getting rid of mail-in ballots and what he said were “Highly ‘Inaccurate,’ Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES.”
Alleging without evidence that Democrats use mail-in ballots and voting machines to cheat in elections, Trump said he prefers “accurate and sophisticated Watermark Paper.”
Trump said the states—which are responsible for administering federal elections—are “merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes” and they must follow the federal government’s directives.
Monday’s statement marks another reverse course for Trump on mail-in ballots, which he supported in the 2024 election after previously alleging they contributed to widespread fraud and his 2020 election loss.
Trump said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed with him during their meeting in Alaska that mail-in ballots contribute to fraud in elections, telling Fox News that Putin “said you can’t have an honest election with mail-in voting.” Trump said Putin agreed with his false narrative that he was the true winner of the 2020 election.
30%. That’s the share of mail-in ballots cast in the 2024 election, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, compared to 43% in the 2020 election, when the Covid-19 pandemic contributed to higher levels of absentee voting.
Trump has long claimed, falsely, that he was the true winner of the 2020 election and that voter fraud, including rigged voting machines, contributed to his loss, though experts and multiple judges have found that no evidence exists to support his claims of widespread voter fraud. Trump signed an executive order in March to block mail-in ballots that arrive after election day from being counted and require proof-of-citizenship to vote, but the order was blocked in federal court.
Trump Now Says Mail-In Voting Is ‘Safe And Secure’ – But Only In Florida (Forbes)
Trump’s Mail-In Voter Fraud Claims Have No Merit, Courts Rule (Forbes)
Trump Says The Election Will Be 'Rigged' By Mail-In Voting, Despite Research (Forbes)