President Trump, standing alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, doubled down on his vow to eliminate mail-in voting nationwide. He told reporters, “We gotta stop mail-in voting. Republicans must lead the charge. Democrats want it because they have horrible policy. With mail-in voting, you’re not going to have many Republicans winning elections.”
Trump said he is preparing an executive order that would ban mail-in ballots ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. He insisted, “Mail-in ballots are corrupt. You can never have a real democracy with them. We’re going to end them with an executive order.”
He argued that eliminating mail-in voting would ensure elections are faster and more secure: “With paper ballots, you’d have results that same night. No delays. No cheating.” Trump added that most countries don’t use mail-in voting because of the risk of “massive fraud.”
At one point, he shared a story about being asked for identification at a polling place, contrasting it with what he described as “corrupt” practices in California, where he claimed without evidence that voters receive multiple ballots.
Trump has made similar claims before, continuing to insist that the 2020 election was “rigged” because of mail-in ballots. Nearly a third of voters used mail-in ballots in the 2024 election, according to federal data, down from the pandemic-era peak in 2020 but still a major share.
His attempts to restrict ballot counting have already faced legal hurdles. Earlier this year, courts blocked parts of an executive order he signed that sought to prevent states from counting ballots postmarked by Election Day but arriving later.
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