President Donald Trump has said he is preparing an executive order to “get rid of” mail-in ballots and voting machines before the 2026 midterm elections—and he’s spreading misinformation on social media about the voting methods ahead of time.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]
During a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House Monday, Trump criticized mail-in ballots as “corrupt” and undemocratic.
“Mail-in ballots are corrupt; you can never have a real Democracy with mail-in ballots,” Trump said, adding that lawyers are already drafting the executive order. “It’s the only way [Democrats] can get elected.”
Earlier in the day, Trump posted a similar message on Truth Social, pledging to “lead a movement” to eliminate mail-in ballots and “highly inaccurate” voting machines.
“We are now the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting. All others gave it up because of the MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD ENCOUNTERED,” he wrote.
Absentee voting and vote-by-mail allow people to send in their ballots via the postal service. Not all states allow it, and the laws vary in each state that does. Some states permit universal mail-in voting, for example, where anyone can vote by mail for any reason. Others allow it in specific circumstances.
Lots of other countries vote by mail
Despite what Trump claims, the United States is not the only country that uses mail-in ballots. The International Institute for Democracy & Electoral Assistance (IDEA), an intergovernmental organization that works to protect democratic institutions, says that 34 countries allow postal voting—12 of which allow it for all voters, and 22 of which allow it for some voters. Among the countries that allow it are Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Germany.
IDEA found that the COVID-19 pandemic created an incentive for these countries to upscale their mail-in ballot infrastructure for public health reasons, but most have kept these avenues open for citizens.
Read more: Voting by Mail Dates Back to America’s Earliest Years. Here’s How It’s Changed Over the Years
Although Trump says he will use Executive Order powers to end the practice, the U.S. Constitution directs state legislatures to determine the “times, places and manner” of holding elections, which is part of the reason why only some states have vote-by-mail practices, and each state with vote-by-mail has different requirements.
There’s no evidence that mail voting is corrupt
Trump’s post revived some well-worn claims that mail-in voting is used by his opponents, Democrats, for corrupt purposes, despite no evidence to support this.
“Democrats are virtually Unelectable without using this completely disproven Mail-In SCAM. ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING, and everybody, IN PARTICULAR THE DEMOCRATS, KNOWS THIS,” Trump said. “I, AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, WILL FIGHT LIKE HELL TO BRING HONESTY AND INTEGRITY BACK TO OUR ELECTIONS.”
This is not the first time Trump has attacked mail-in ballots as a form of voting. During the 2020 election—which Trump lost to former President Joe Biden—Trump heavily attacked the use of mail-in ballots and suggested, without evidence, that mail voting would lead to “massive fraud, and abuse,” and discredited physical ballot drop boxes. He also threatened to deploy law enforcement to polling places on Election Day.
Trump’s rhetoric made it seem that mail-in ballots were a Democratic plot and the election would be “rigged” as a result. When he lost the 2020 election, Trump was quick to blame mail-in ballots, drop boxes, and voting machines, claiming that the system was corrupt.
Though research shows that partisan rhetoric made voting by mail a more “Democrat” thing to do in 2020 and 2022, experts—including the Brennan Center for Justice, the Bipartisan Policy Center, and the Center for Election Innovation and Research—have debunked Trump’s claims and found that vote-by-mail methods only expand voting options for voters, and that the 2020 election was not marred by corruption.
In the 2024 election, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission found that though mail-in ballots were not quite as popular as during the COVID-19 pandemic, they still accounted for nearly a third of ballots cast. And, in part motivated by Trump’s claims of fraud, at least 19 states have passed new mail voting restrictions in place to make the practice more difficult since 2020, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.