Donald Trump, the former president, has said he will sign an executive order to get rid of mail-in voting before the 2026 midterm elections. He calls the system “corrupt” since it lets people cheat in elections and helps Democratic candidates. His idea has created a lot of discussion about whether or not a president can legally affect elections run by the state.
Trump said these things soon after a meeting of high-level officials in Washington, D.C., saying they were for political reasons. Ironically, mail-in voting helped him win the 2024 election, even though he had criticised the system in the previous.
What is voting by mail, and how does it work?
Citizens can vote from home by mailing their votes through the mail or putting them in special drop boxes. This strategy does away with the requirement for people to vote in person at polling places.
California, Oregon, and Colorado are just a few of the states that hold all of their elections via mail. Some will let you do it if you ask for an absentee ballot. This method became quite popular during the 2020 election, which was held because of the epidemic, but it is still a big part of the voting process.
National figures show that 43% of votes in the 2020 presidential election were cast by mail. In 2024, that number dropped to 30%. The drop means that people can vote in person again, but it doesn’t mean that sent ballots are no longer useful. Here is the link to our article on Early Voting Surge.
Why does Trump not want mail-in ballots?
Trump has said several times that mail-in voting is easy to cheat on. He says that the approach gives Democrats an unfair advantage and hurts the fairness of elections.
There is no solid evidence to back up these assertions, but Republicans have continued to be sceptical about mail voting. During the 2024 election cycle, Trump interestingly changed his tone and exhorted his supporters to vote “by any means necessary,” even by mail.
Republican voters in several states that lean Republican, such as Arizona, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, liked the system and sometimes sent in more mail-in ballots than Democrats.
Is it legal for a president to stop people from voting by mail?
State legislatures are in charge of running elections, according to the U.S. Constitution. The President does not have direct control over how people vote, but Congress can set rules for federal elections.
The law says that state electoral systems work on their own, especially for municipal and statewide offices. Even elections for the federal government are run by the states. If the Executive Branch tried to go around this structure, it would face major legal problems.
Most legal experts agree that Trump can’t make changes to voting on his own. Courts have always said that legislation about elections must come from the legislature, not from executive directives. Here is the link to our article on Merz Elected Chancellor.
Is the United States the only country that uses mail-in voting?
At least 34 countries throughout the world allow some sort of voting by mail. In national elections, voters in Germany, South Korea, and Canada can all mail in their ballots. These systems usually have extra safety features and methods to check things.
Trump first said that the U.S. was the only country that allowed mail voting, but later he admitted he might have been wrong.
Final Thoughts
As the 2026 midterm elections get closer, mail-in voting is still a hot topic of controversy across the country. Trump wants to limit it, but constitutional law gives states complete autonomy over how elections are run. Mail-in voting will continue to be legal and widely used unless Congress or state legislatures establish new restrictions. Even while there are still claims of fraud, no strong proof has been found. Both sides are now using mail-in ballots to get more people to vote. The argument will probably continue, but not because of presidential executive actions.
