President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social post on Monday that he would “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.” The Trump administration’s Rapid Response account reposted the statement on X, circulating his plans to sign an executive order to “help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections.”
Trump’s post came shortly after his summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week. The president said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Putin told him, in reference to the 2020 election, “Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting.”
Mail-in ballots are available to some extent in all 50 states. Three dozen states allow all citizens to vote by mail, while 14 limit absentee ballots to those with a valid excuse such as a disability or expected absence from the state on Election Day.
Experts agree that fraud occurs rarely with mail-in voting as there are systems in place to verify and safeguard each absentee ballot. This includes processes such as matching ballot signatures against voter registration signatures, tracking each ballot electronically to prevent double voting, and using ballot paper with technical markings. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has identified 378 cases of “fraudulent use of absentee ballots” in all 50 states, dating back to 1988.
In naming “voting machines,” Trump did not discern between vote tabulation machines, which read handmarked ballots, and direct recording electronic systems in which votes are recorded and stored on a cartridge or hard drive. About 70 percent of voters live in jurisdictions that use paper ballots, while about 25 percent use a ballot marking device (BMD), which allows you to electronically fill out a ballot and receive a paper copy as well.
Matt Weil, vice president of the democracy team at the Bipartisan Policy Organization, told The Dispatch that scanners are faster and more accurate than hand-counting ballots. “All the research shows that humans doing repetitive tasks like counting ballots is never going to be as accurate as a computer, so you’re going to get slower results, and they’re most likely to have more errors than a computer,” he said.
The technology used to count votes is required to pass numerous security checks by the federal Election Assistance Commission. This includes tabulators, which must be accredited and certified by the commission. Federally certified voting technology is part of the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA), signed into law by President George W. Bush. Along with an accreditation system, it provides funding to jurisdictions to meet the federal standards, which all 50 states and the five territories have utilized.
Weil also disputed Trump’s claim that tabulation systems are expensive. “That actually is not an incredibly expensive system,” he said. “I mean, the cost for larger jurisdictions can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but you know, they last a very long time. And so the only kind of recurring cost is maintenance of those machines and the paper.”
By contrast, a California county that considered hand-counting all of its ballots determined that a hand count would have cost more than $650,000 for the 2024 presidential primary alone, and much more for the general election, according to Voting Rights Lab.
Trump also said in his Truth Social post, “Remember, the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do.”
His statement lacks context.
Article 1 Section 4 of the Constitution states, “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.”
Trump cannot implement changes to election law via executive order; Congress would have to pass legislation to do so.
Trump’s claim that “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” is false. The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance shows that 34 countries have some form of in-country postal voting. Of these 34 countries, 12 allow all voters to mail-in ballots, including Canada, Germany, and Denmark, while 22 countries allow some voters to mail-in ballots according to circumstances outlined in their respective laws, including Australia, Greenland, and Spain.
