President Trump Monday declared conflict on mail-in ballots and even voting machines, which he falsely claimed are a part of a plot by Democrats to steal elections.
Proclaiming he needs to “bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections,” Trump vowed to signal an govt order forcing states to maneuver to all paper ballots, which he asserts are extra dependable and sooner to tabulate.
“The mail-in ballot hoax, using voting machines that are a complete and total disaster must end now,” he declared on his social media website.
Trump claimed that states mustn’t have the facility to implement their very own voting strategies as a result of they’re “merely an agent for the federal government in counting and tabulating the votes.”
“They must do what .. the president of the United States, tells them,” he added.
However the Structure says one thing very totally different.
It offers particular person states the facility to set the “times, places and manner” of elections, and it offers Congress alone the flexibility to override state legal guidelines on voting.
Together with Democratic states like California and Washington, crimson states like Florida, Utah and Alaska predominantly use mail-in voting, together with swing states like Arizona.
Specialists say the tens of thousands and thousands of mail-in ballots are simply as correct and safe as paper ballots and permit for a lot larger charges of voter participation. Courts have repeatedly backed their use.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP through Getty Photographs
A pair of election employees from totally different political events open and examine mail-in poll envelopes containing voted ballots after they accomplished signature verification on Election Day, November 5, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Picture by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP through Getty Photographs)
Trump has for years railed towards mail-in voting, which he believes disproportionately advantages Democrats. He blames the apply for costing him the 2020 election, during which former President Biden beat him by a convincing 7 million votes.
Mail-in votes forged earlier than election day have usually trended blue within the final couple of elections. However in earlier cycles it was extensively promoted by Republicans who used it to their very own benefit particularly in Florida, which has shifted exhausting to the best.
Trump additionally wrote that he needs to do away with voting machines, which he described as inaccurate and costly. He claimed, incorrectly, that america is “the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting.”
He didn’t say precisely what his order may say or how he might compel states to conform. Any push would nearly actually spark an intense battle in court docket.
It’s unlikely that states would be capable of upend their voting techniques earlier than the midterms, when Trump is going through a possible troublesome political atmosphere and would usually be anticipated to lose seats in Congress.
Trump and Republicans are pulling out all of the stops to shift the political floor, together with jamming by a controversial mid-decade redistricting effort in Texas geared toward selecting up 5 seats for the GOP.
Initially Printed: August 18, 2025 at 11:27 AM EDT
