Trump Issues Update on Future of Mail-in Ballots, Voting Machines for 2026

[CatWoman]

President Donald Trump said he will issue an executive order to end the use of mail-in ballots and voting machines ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, a move that would inevitably spark legal challenges by the states.

Trump, who has long argued that mail-in ballots and voting machines are vulnerable to election fraud, though evidence of it happening in practice in the U.S. is scant, made the announcement in a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday morning, August 18.

Democrats support mail-in balloting because it widens access to voting to people who struggle or are unable to vote in person, such as the elderly and disabled, and say ending it would effectively disenfranchise a large number of voters.

But Trump and the Republicans say there is a substantial risk of electoral fraud from mail-in voting and that voting machines could be hacked by malactors.

"I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we're at it, 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," Trump wrote.


https://www.newsweek.com/trump-2026-midterms-mail-ballots-voting-machines-2114934

[Javaman]

1. that's nice...

the red states will fall in lie, but since we don't have a national standard for voting, blue states can give him the 1 finger salute.

[allegorical oracle]

12. FWIW, hope Fla doesn't go to just in-person voting using paper ballots. The state has a rocky

history of counts and re-counts -- even using machines. Hand counting paper ballots in a tedious, time-consuming task and the very fact that the cheater-in-chief favors that method makes me suspicious.

This year, there are 14.8 million registered voters in the state and hand counting seems like it would take many days, especially if ballots must be counted multiple times.

[speak easy]

2. I am in favor of ending voting machine counting.

[Nigrum Cattus]

26. California votes by mail

We vote on paper that is machine counted. There is no
problem with the counting machines. The problem is with
electronic voting. Most of the "swing" states vote stealing
came from in person electronic voting.

[dweller]

3. Next step ... No More Elections

https://www.c-span.org/clip/campaign-2024/user-clip-trump-in-four-years-you-dont-have-to-vote-again-well-have-it-fixed-so-good-youre-not-going-to-have-to-vote/5126048

😐



✌🏻

[Lovie777]

4. shithole knows as well as down ballots he and GQP probably will not win..................

2026 because of the economy, immigration, shithole's private army ICE, the use of NG's to subdue USA citizens re take over a city, state, eventually all of the USA .....................

The American citizens will not stand for it..............

so again, shithole and the GQP have to cheat, steal, lie, make up shit, and lie and steal and cheat some more.............

the never ending scam.

[Historic NY]

5. Its up to congress.....

Counting the vote takes time except for the impatient child. Tossing overseas military ballots and any other votes is the Republican goal.

[Fiendish Thingy]

7. It's not up to congress

The states control elections.

A number of states, including Oregon and Colorado, IIRC, are completely mail in ballots.

[Just_Vote_Dem]

8. Absolutely correct

And it shows how the Pubs are absolutely terrified of honest elections.

[Wounded Bear]

11. Congress is allowed to dictate voting laws per the Constitution...nt

[Fiendish Thingy]

14. States run the elections, per the constitution. Nt

[Wounded Bear]

15. Article 1, Section 4...

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.

[Fiendish Thingy]

17. And?

Do you expect congress to change every states’ laws by making uniform nationwide regulations?

[Wounded Bear]

23. No, I don't expect it. I'm just pointing out that Congress could do that...

assuming we could overcome a Repub fillibuster, of course. A Dem House majority might do it, but with the fillibuster the repubs would kill it.

[A Brand New World]

20. WA also is totally mail in only.

And I love it! The only way to vote IMHO.

[Cha]

27. Adn Hawaii. TY

[Fiendish Thingy]

6. The states control elections

They will ignore any presidential executive orders that cannot be enforced.

[cayugafalls]

9. Watermark paper can be stuffed in the box, hence why they added an electronic verification step.

just saying

[CatWoman]

10. see also:

Fact check: Trump falsely claims US is only country that uses mail-in voting

https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/18/politics/trump-mail-in-voting

[Cha]

28. Shocking... Traitor is buried in LIES.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Paper-only ballots would cause big queues at polling stations

which the unscrupulous Republican party would take advantage of by restricting polling stations in Democratic-voting areas, and making sure there's plenty of them in Republican-voting areas. You know, something like "3 stations per county", which works fine in a rural county with nothing more than a town of 10,000 in, but not so well in a metropolitan county of 2 million people.

It'd also give the media a fit, having to wait many hours for even initial results, and days for down-ballot races. Whether Republicans could game that too, I'm not sure - I'm not as naturally sneaky as they are.

[allegorical oracle]

30. Trump is the one who has a fit when results aren't in by his bedtime. Counting paper

ballots won't please His Majesty because it could take days.

[questionseverything]

31. Why would paper ballots be slower?

In Illinois where I vote, many folding tables are set up and loads of people vote at once

Waiting for a machine would make things way slower

[muriel_volestrangler]

32. With many offices to vote for, aren't there loads of different ballots that the public has to do separately?

My own experience is just in the UK, where we have paper ballots, but I've never had to vote for more than 3 offices in an election; and that involves getting the public to do the right thing 3 times, and put the correct ballots into the correct boxes (even if they're colour-coded). This seems to be a struggle for some, and in an election with many more offices, and no "vote all Democratic" option, it would be a nightmare, with voters of the calibre of the British.

[questionseverything]

33. All the ballot questions go on one piece of paper

Hand counting would be more difficult with several questions but the actual voting is not a problem

[muriel_volestrangler]

35. Ah - counting must take days, then

You have to see the right race (is this piece of paper folded? Or just very long?) And you can only start the next race when the first is completely finished, because you need all the ballots in their piles in case of recount - or a recount can only happen after the other races have had their first count too.

[questionseverything]

37. The hand counting would be done by precinct so the bigger the precinct the longer it would take

[muriel_volestrangler]

39. And the thing is that if the total count is by state (for president, senate or governor)

then the entire state has to be able to do a recount, so all of the ballots in all precincts must go back into the recount.

[questionseverything]

40. Even if the entire state was recounted, it would still be precinct by precinct

Usually each county would collect those individual towns and cities totals to report to the state

But yes all election related materials must be kept for 22 months after the election (by federal law) and that includes ballots

[pcdb]

36. Paper ballots work fine in Australia

No machine counting at all and they know the results within a few hours (instead of weeks like the US).

[muriel_volestrangler]

38. How many offices do you vote for at once? (nt)

[LetMyPeopleVote]

16. Maddow blog-Trump eyes yet another power grab, takes aim at voting machines and mail-in ballots

The president’s sweeping executive order on elections lost in the courts, but his latest threats make clear that his radical ambitions haven’t changed.

It’s easy to shrug when Trump talks about leading “a movement” against mail-in ballots and voting machines.

But when he starts talking about imposing his version of “honesty” on the 2026 midterms, alarm bells start going off. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-08-18T16:03:24.048Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-eyes-yet-another-power-grab-takes-aim-voting-machines-mail-ballo-rcna225602

Predictably, the executive order faced immediate legal challenges, and a federal judges blocked the Republican’s outlandish power grab from going forward.

He’s apparently not giving up. NBC News reported:

Trump said in a post to Truth Social that he would sign an executive order to try to get rid of mail-in ballots and voting machines, a move that would almost certainly face immediate challenges in court. The president said in the post that he was ‘going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS’ and voting machines.

The 288-word online tantrum — complete with six exclamation points, a robust number of sentences written with the caps lock on and the word “woke” — was remarkable in its inanity.

Trump claimed that no other country on the planet “uses Mail-In Voting,” which isn’t even close to being true. He similarly accused Democrats of cheating in elections, which also isn’t true......

And now Trump is eyeing another presidential directive to ensure his version of “honesty” is applied to next year’s elections.

Journalist and historian Garrett Graff noted in response to the latest online rant from the White House, “This is step one in how we lose free and fair elections. It’s not that Trump will ‘cancel’ the midterms. It’s just everyone has to vote in person, and urban downtowns will be filled with ICE checkpoints and intimidating National Guard troops to ‘double check’ that only citizens vote.”

[Cha]

29. TY.. I read in LBN that "Putin agrees with him"..

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143513733

MF So Stupid he thinks that's a selling point.

[Trueblue1968]

18. DonOLD Stinky Rump does not have the authority to change our elections. He lies !!!!!

What an Ahole

[JCMach1]

19. DJT- since we can't have fraud, no need to vote any more.

SARCASM

[LetMyPeopleVote]

21. I have some history on vote by mail in Texas

Back in 2011, the Texas GOP passed a voter id law that was later largely gutted in court. Part of that voter id law excluded vote by mail ballots from the voter id requirements because at the time, the GOP was relying on vote by mail for voter turnout. The GOP base is older than the Democratic base and tended to vote by mail more that Democrats. In 2010, the GOP had 4 times the number of voters who voted early in the GOP primary compared to Democratic voters. The Democratic Party started to push vote by mail for our eligible voters who may not have had the proper id. Here is a post about the push by the Texas Democratic Party on vote by mail https://www.democraticunderground.com/107814375

Over the years, the Texas Democrats have narrowed the gap in vote by mail ballots. Now trump thinks that Democrats are using vote by mail more that republicans and that appears to be true in some states.

I note that trump has encouraged vote by mail and has voted by mail

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[senseandsensibility]

22. Newsom's not gonna take this lying down

I'll tell you that much.

[CatWoman]

24. neither is Mark Elias

[LetMyPeopleVote]

25. MaddowBlog-Trump's crusade against mail-in ballots isn't doing Republicans any favors

Republican officials want their party’s voters to cast their ballots through the mail. The president’s rhetoric is undermining his party’s message.

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trumps-crusade-mail-ballots-isnt-republicans-favors-rcna225844

Then Trump hosted an Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during which the Republican became rather animated — but not about the largest war in Europe since World War II. Rather, the American president got worked up talking about how much he hates when Americans vote by casting ballots through the mail.

Trump echoes comments he said Putin made to him last Friday: "Mail in ballots are corrupt. You can never have a real democracy w/ mail in ballots. We as a Republican Party are gonna do everything possible. We're gonna start with an executive order to end mail in ballots."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-08-18T17:44:45.317Z

.....To justify this radical and aggressive offensive against this form of voting, Trump is peddling a variety of stale lies. More importantly, he’s claiming legal authority he does not have. But whether he realizes it or not, the president is also taking steps that won’t do his party any favors. Politico reported that he’s “once again threatening to undermine” a Republican electoral priority.

Republicans poured tens of millions of dollars last year into convincing their voters that casting ballots by mail was safe after Trump spent years bashing the practice and baselessly insisting it was rife with fraud. And it worked, with GOP voters closing or even reversing the mail voting gap with Democrats in several states. But now Trump is attacking mail voting again as he ratchets up his push to protect Republicans’ House majority in the midterms, scrambling a strategy Republicans effectively used to bank millions of votes in 2024.

Politico quoted Barrett Marson, a longtime GOP consultant in Arizona, who said voting by mail “historically has been an advantage for Republicans” in the Grand Canyon State and is a “safe and secure way to vote and has been for a generation in Arizona.” He added, however, that as the president sows “distrust” in the process and Democrats step up their game, the result is “not good” for Republicans.

It would be tough to blame GOP voters for feeling confused at this point. For years, Trump, the party’s undisputed leader, has veered wildly between two opposite positions. On the one hand, he’s falsely condemned mail-in voting as irredeemably corrupt and “stupid.” On the other hand, in between delivering those condemnations, the president has also encouraged rank-and-file GOP voters to cast their ballots through the mail.

At one point in 2023, Trump even told attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference that it was time for Republicans to “change our thinking” on mail-in voting, and soon after, he filmed a video for the Republican National Committee in support of the party’s early voting initiative.

In Texas, vote by mail is a key part of the GOP GOTV efforts. A larger percentage of GOP voters are older and vote by mail. trump may be hurting GOP GOTV efforts

[MerryBlooms]

34. Oregon will continue controlling our elections, F Off

[LetMyPeopleVote]

41. I have some history on vote by mail in Texas

Back in 2011, the Texas GOP passed a voter id law that was later largely gutted in court. Part of that voter id law excluded vote by mail ballots from the voter id requirements because at the time, the GOP was relying on vote by mail for voter turnout. The GOP base is older than the Democratic base and tended to vote by mail more that Democrats. In 2010, the GOP had 4 times the number of voters who voted early in the GOP primary compared to Democratic voters. The Democratic Party started to push vote by mail for our eligible voters who may not have had the proper id. Here is a post about the push by the Texas Democratic Party on vote by mail https://www.democraticunderground.com/107814375

Over the years, the Texas Democrats have narrowed the gap in vote by mail ballots. Now trump thinks that Democrats are using vote by mail more that republicans and that appears to be true in some states.

I note that trump has encouraged vote by mail and has voted by mail

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet