President Trump on Monday promised to work to end mail-in voting and said that work is already going on on an executive order to ban it before the mid-term elections of 2026, although the Constitution does not give them this power.
“We, as a Republican Party, are going to get rid of every effort that we are going to get rid of Mail-in ballot“He said during an oval office meeting Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelancesi“We are going to start with an executive order that is currently being written by the best lawyers of the country to eliminate mail-in ballot papers.”
Why do Trump want to ban these ballot papers?
“Mail-in ballots are corrupt,” said the President. He suggested that this method is susceptible to voter fraud, claiming in California, “It is very corrupt, where some people get five, six, seven ballots.” It often happens Insisted Mail-in ballots can be tampered with or capable of people to vote several times.
But soon after 2020 election, Debra Clever, Founder and CEO VotericaA nonpartison voter information site, Dismissed The idea of broad voter fraud as “a myth”.
“Outgoing ballots contain a barcode, and then when you send your ballot, you put it in a return envelope and the barcode has to match the barcode that was sent out for voting,” he explained to CBS News.
After that election, Christopher Krebs, director of the nation’s cyber security agency, called the 2020 vote “the most secure in American history”.
In 2024, when Mr. Trump won the presidential election, US Census Bureau said About one -third of the ballot papers were poured by mail across the country.
Trump’s adjacent Executive Order to prevent mail voting – will it be legal?
In a social media post in the first day, the President said about the adjacent order that it will “help in bringing honesty in the mid -term elections of 2026”.
He claimed that the state “is a ‘agent’ for the federal government in counting and tabling only votes,” and that “and”[t]Hey, the federal government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, for the good of our country. ,
But Article I, Section 4 of Article Constitution It is said that it is in states that have the right to regulate elections, not the President, and it can only be replaced by the Congress.
Trump claims that we are the only country that uses mail-in voting. is that true?
Mr. Trump also claimed, “We are now the only country in the world that uses mail-in voting” and argued, “If you have mail-in you will never have an honest election.
In fact, more than 30 other countries allow voting by mail for some or all voters, according to this International democracy and electoral assistance instituteA inter -government advocacy group located in Sweden. Canada, United kingdom, Switzerland, GermanyAnd Denmark Among them.
Mail-in voting in America
In America, mail voting is widespread: 28 states Allow any voter to request a mail-in ballot, while the rest require the cause of AA documents such as illness or military service.
The epidemic promoted the mail in the 2020 elections. About 43% of the voters cast their votes by mail that year, according to A Report Election Assistance by Commission. In 2024, mail voting stopped, with more than 30% of the total votes – about 46.8 million votes. The Commission said that last year’s number was still higher than pre-political levels.
Last Friday, the theme of Mail-in Voting also came during the meeting of Mr. Trump with Russian President Vladimir Putin. After the two met on Friday, the President told the scene Hannie of Fox News that “Vladimir Putin, Smart Guy, said,” You may not have an honest election, election with mail-in voting. ” And he said, ‘There is no country in the world that now uses it. ,
Mr. Trump said that both of them talked about the 2020 election and Putin said to him, “You won that election too much, and how this (mail voting) [Biden] It got it. “Audit and investigation, including something organized by Trump supporters and state’s Republican secretaries, showed no evidence that the 2020 election results were incorrect.
David Baker, Executive Director of Center for Election Innovation and Research, told CBS News in a statement that mail-in voting has been around since the civil war and said that getting rid of mail voting is “an incredibly bad idea that would make our elections very less safe and unsafe for intervention.”
Baker said, “States need to eliminate or replace the voting machines that confirm the election of this president, which is not possible, just 15 months before the mid -term election and less than a year before primary, and it will result in chaos.”
Sara Cook and Jena Gibson Rigins contributed to this report.
