President Donald Trump (R) indicated Monday morning that he intends to sign an executive order ending “mail-in voting” ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
He also took aim at the use of “voting machines,” advocating for a return to paper ballots as he argues they are a faster and more accurate means of tallying the vote.
In a Truth Social post Monday morning, the President suggested that Democrats will oppose these efforts “BECAUSE THEY CHEAT AT LEVELS NEVER SEEN BEFORE.”
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), 28 states — including Maine — offer no-excuse absentee voting where those who cannot make it to the polls on election day can request that a ballot be sent to them. Absentee ballots can then be returned either by mail, in-person, or at a secured drop box.
Additionally, 8 states conduct all of their elections entirely by mail, sending ballots unprompted to all registered voters, including: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington. Washington D.C. also conducts its elections entirely by mail.
Although it is not immediately clear the type of mail-in voting that the President is referring to in his statement, his later remarks appear to point toward the latter.
“We are now the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting,” he wrote. “All others gave it up because of the MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD ENCOUNTERED.”
The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) — an “intergovernmental organization that supports democracy worldwide” — reports widespread use of systems that resemble mail-in absentee voting, but mail-only elections appear to be a largely unique phenomenon.
Referred to in a 2023 report as “universal postal voting,” this methodology is said to have “been adopted in some US states and was also used in Bavaria during the pandemic.”
The Netherlands is also said to have used a form of automatic postal voting in their 2021 parliamentary election when ballots were mailed to all registered voters over the age of 70.
“Postal voting” — defined in a similar manner to absentee voting in the United States, specifically referring to voters ability to receive and return ballots by mail — is used across a wide range of countries, including in Asia and Europe.
Canada, New Zealand, South Korea, the US, and several European countries — including Germany, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK — are said to make postal voting available to all registered voters.
The President also took aim at the use of “voting machines” in his statement Monday, suggesting that the country should do away with them as well.
“[We should get rid of] Highly ‘Inaccurate,’ Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES, which cost Ten Times more than accurate and sophisticated Watermark Paper, which is faster, and leaves NO DOUBT, at the end of the evening, as to who WON, and who LOST, the Election,” he wrote.
According to Verified Voting, around 30 percent of registered voters currently use some sort of electronic device when casting their ballots at the polls on election day.
As of November 2024, 69.5 percent of voters use paper ballots, 25.6 percent ballot marking devices (BMDs), and 4.9 percent use a direct recording electronic (DRE) system.
BMDs were first developed as an accessibility tool in the early 2000s and serve as a blend between fully paper and fully electronic voting systems. While voters mark their choices digitally, the device produces a readable paper record of their selections, either by marking pre-printed ballots or printing summaries of voters’ choices.
DRE systems store results digitally and record each voter’s choices as individual records. Some of these systems utilize a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) printer that allows voters to verify their selections on paper before finalizing them digitally.
Where VVPATs are used, the papers they produce are preserved and may be used in post-election audits or recounts depending upon local regulations.
South Carolina and Georgia both use BMDs statewide, while all jurisdictions in Louisiana use DRE systems without VVPATs.
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kansas, Nevada, California, and Texas all employ a combination of electoral systems.
While most of these states are still dominated by the use of paper ballots, others rely primarily on other methods or represent a more mixed approach.
For example, voters in Tennessee are roughly evenly divided between the three voting methods. In the case of Indiana, about half of voters use DREs with VVPAT, around a third use BMDs, and a little more than a tenth use paper ballots.
When speaking to his authority to make these changes, President Trump argued in Monday’s Truth Social post that states are “merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the voters,” meaning that 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.”
As explained by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, “state law primarily determines how elections are conducted, federal law also sets standards that all states must follow.”
Article I, Section 4, Clause I of the U.S. Constitution reads: “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.”
Law school professors told Newsweek that only Congress, not the President, has the authority to change federal election law. It was also pointed out by James A. Gardner, a professor at the University at Buffalo School of Law, that no part of the federal government can regulate state and local elections.
“The only exception is when Congress enacts a law to enforce the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments, which prohibit discrimination in voting,” Gardner explained.
“With their HORRIBLE Radical Left policies, like Open Borders, Men Playing in Women’s Sports, Transgender and ‘WOKE’ for everyone, and so much more, Democrats are virtually Unelectable without using this completely disproven Mail-In SCAM,” President Trump said.
“ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING, and everybody, IN PARTICULAR THE DEMOCRATS, KNOWS THIS,” the President continued. “I, AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, WILL FIGHT LIKE HELL TO BRING HONESTY AND INTEGRITY BACK TO OUR ELECTIONS.”
“THE MAIL-IN BALLOT HOAX, USING VOTING MACHINES THAT ARE A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER, MUST END, NOW!!! REMEMBER, WITHOUT FAIR AND HONEST ELECTIONS, AND STRONG AND POWERFUL BORDERS, YOU DON’T HAVE EVEN A SEMBLANCE OF A COUNTRY,” Trump wrote.
A specific timeline for enacting these changes has not yet been announced by the White House as of Monday afternoon.
During an Oval Office press conference held around his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump reiterated his commitment to “stop mail-in ballots,” referring to the practice as “corrupt.”
“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 because they’re corrupt,” Trump said, according to ABC News.
“The Democrats want it because the have horrible policy,” he added. “The Republicans have to get smart.”
“We’re not going to have a country,” said Trump. “You need borders, and you need free and fair elections.”
Trump on the importance of ending mail-in voting:
— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) August 18, 2025
"You're not going to have many Democrats get elected. That's bigger than anything having to do with redistricting, believe me." pic.twitter.com/2wgVxXGvRu
