OPINION:

Way back in the 1980s, I decided I wanted to cast an absentee ballot — for no other reason than laziness. I figured, meh, send me a ballot, I’ll fill it out at my leisure and send it back. There, voting done.

So I went to my local registrar’s office and asked for one. The election official asked me for a plane or train ticket, or some proof — had to be physical, a document — to show that I’d be out of state on Election Day. Busted. I had nothing. So I voted on Election Day at my local polling spot, the closest elementary school.

That’s how it once was. First, you couldn’t get an absentee ballot unless you could prove you’d be, you know, absent. Second, you had to go in to the registrar’s office to get one, thus you had to show ID, prove who you were. And third, they held all the cards. Fail to prove? Sorry, see you on Election Day.

Now, you don’t even need an absentee ballot. We’ve gone right to mail-in voting. Who knows who actually filled out that ballot? Nobody. And nobody is ever going to check.

The movement to vote by mail emerged in the 1980s (of course, it began in California), and it allowed citizens to request absentee ballots for any reason at all, including their convenience. By 2023, 28 states and the District of Columbia had adopted no-excuse absentee laws.

Here’s an interesting stat: According to data in the 2022 Election Administration and Voting Survey, an average of 23.3% of voters in no-excuse states cast their ballots by mail, compared with an average of 5.4% in states that still required an excuse.

The phenomenon of mail-in voting exploded in the 2020 elections amid the COVID-19 pandemic. While voting by mail topped out at about 30 million in 2016, nearly 66 million Americans sent in their votes in 2020 (that’s 43% of all votes cast).

And here’s another interesting stat: When Barack Obama made history in 2008, 131 million Americans voted (nearly 10 million more than cast ballots in 2004). In 2016, when MAGA flexed its muscles, 137 million voted.

But in 2020, when perennial loser Joe Biden won the presidential election, nearly 159 million Americans went to the polls. Simply put, that’s just impossible. The corrupt politician who could barely put together a sentence and who campaigned from his basement throughout the election had drawn 28 million more Americans to the polls than the first Black man ever elected president?! Nuh-uh.

Now, President Trump wants to rectify the situation. During a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House on Monday, Mr. Trump ripped mail-in ballots as undemocratic, declaring he would “lead a movement” to get rid of them.

“Mail-in ballots are corrupt; you can never have a real democracy with mail-in ballots,” Mr. Trump said, adding that administration attorneys are already drafting an executive order to do away with the perk. “It’s the only way [Democrats] can get elected.”

“We’ve got to stop mail-in voting. And the Republicans have to lead the charge. The Democrats want it. Because they have horrible policy. If you have mail-in voting, you’re not going to have many Democrats get elected. That’s bigger than anything having to do with redistricting, and the Republicans have to get smart,” he said.

There’s just one problem: the Constitution. The Founding Fathers gave states and Congress the power to run elections, so presidents, as much as they might want to, have no power to change their systems.

But, as he has done before, Mr. Trump takes issue with the Constitution. “Remember, the states are merely an ‘agent’ for the federal government in counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the federal government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do,” he wrote in a Truth Social post.

But there is one simple solution: Do away with early voting and mail-in ballots and turn Election Day into Election Week. Americans would have an entire week to cast their ballots, which means the polls would hardly ever be crowded. And if someone really is going to be unable to vote during that period, they should be required to go to the registrar’s office and prove who they are to get an absentee ballot.

Mr. Trump wants to Make America Great Again, but he also wants to MAGTTPA: Make Americans Go To The Polls Again. It’s a good call.

• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.