The president, seizing on assertions by Vladimir Putin, guarantees to ‘lead a movement’ for paper ballots. However his powers are restricted.
By Jessica Huseman for Votebeat
President Donald Trump returned to social media Monday with one other barrage of unsubstantiated statements in regards to the integrity of elections, following a gathering during which Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly claimed that U.S. elections have been “rigged” due to mail‑in voting.
Seizing on that assertion — regardless of there being no credible proof to assist it — Trump promised on Fact Social to “lead a movement” to part out mail‑in ballots and voting machines, and promote “watermark paper.” He steered he would implement these adjustments with an government order forward of the 2026 midterms.
The publish accommodates many different false, deceptive, or unsubstantiated statements about using mail ballots, together with claims Trump and his allies have made earlier than — whilst extra Republican officers have tried to encourage voting by mail.
His claims however, courts have repeatedly rejected allegations of widespread fraud tied to mail ballots, and lots of democracies world wide use them. And below the Structure, he has no express authority over the “time, place and manner” of elections. Specialists say that an government order just like the one Trump describes in his publish can be instantly challenged in court docket and unlikely to take impact.
Past that, any main change to voting by mail earlier than the 2026 midterms can be a logistical nightmare for election directors, and it could disproportionately have an effect on voters who depend on it most, together with abroad service members, veterans, and folks with disabilities.,
Right here’s a truth examine of among the key claims in his publish.
What Trump stated:
“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.”
Reality:
Trump’s declare that states are “merely an agent” of the federal authorities in elections is fake, and opposite to a long time of Republican orthodoxy on this level.
The Structure offers energy to Congress and the states — not the president — to the states to manage the time, method, and place of elections.
In the meantime, Republicans for many years have framed states’ rights as a basic precept. This stretches again to Barry Goldwater within the Sixties, by means of Ronald Reagan’s emphasis on “federalism,” and into current a long time the place GOP leaders have framed decentralization of energy as safety towards “big government.”
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Voting has been a main instance for that very level.
For instance, after the contentious 2000 presidential election, Republicans fiercely defended Florida’s proper to set its personal recount guidelines. GOP leaders and state attorneys normal argued within the Supreme Court docket case Shelby County v. Holder (2013) that federal oversight of state election legal guidelines was unconstitutional. Over the past decade, Republicans in Congress have opposed Democratic efforts to move federal voting-rights laws just like the For the Folks Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Development Act, arguing they represented “federal takeovers” of elections. Then-Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell in 2019 referred to as the laws “a one-size-fits-all partisan rewrite by one side here in Washington.”
In 2020, when Democrats proposed federal necessities to broaden mail voting as a result of COVID-19, Republicans fought them off. And when Trump floated the concept of delaying the November election, Republican senators like McConnell, Lindsey Graham, and Marco Rubio reminded him that Congress and the states management election timing and procedures.
What Trump stated:
“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”
Reality:
Many democracies use mail voting, together with Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and Australia. Some use it extra extensively than the U.S. No nation has “given it up” due to widespread fraud. Fraud is uncommon in international locations that use vote by mail, as it’s right here.
Germany has been utilizing vote by mail for the reason that Fifties; in its 2021 federal election, about half of German voters solid their ballots by means of the mail. In Switzerland, practically all voters obtain their ballots by mail, and greater than 70% of voters return them in the identical manner. The UK permits any voters to request a mailed poll, and about 20% of voters benefit from the coverage. The overwhelming majority of European international locations permit not less than some type of mail voting, particularly for residents dwelling overseas or for these with disabilities.
What Trump stated:
Voting machines are “Highly ‘Inaccurate,’ Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial” and “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.”
Reality:
Paper ballots nonetheless should be counted — both by hand (which is sluggish and error-prone) or by machine. That’s why practically each state that makes use of paper ballots nonetheless depends on scanners to tally them shortly and precisely.
Current federal regulation additionally requires using not less than one voting machine in each single precinct within the nation, to be used by voters who’ve disabilities that make casting a paper poll troublesome. Trump can’t invalidate federal regulation by means of an government order, so voting machines aren’t going anyplace.
Watermarks should not a normal or confirmed safeguard, although some states do have them (or one thing like them). The locations that use them nonetheless use machines to depend these ballots.
What Trump stated:
“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.”
Reality:
There isn’t a proof that one get together “cheats” with mail ballots. Voting by mail is utilized by Republicans and Democrats alike, and in jurisdictions led by Republicans and Democrats. In truth, Republican voters are sometimes extra possible to make use of mail voting, particularly in states like Arizona and Florida, the place Republicans championed the follow till not too long ago. In truth, there’s no proof that vote by mail advantages both get together over the opposite — a number of educational research have reached this conclusion.
What Trump stated:
“ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING.”
Reality:
Mail‑in voting has persistently been proven to function extraordinarily securely as a result of strong safeguards. In states like Pennsylvania, counties that supply poll curing — the flexibility to appropriate errors like lacking signatures — report considerably decrease rejection charges, demonstrating that the system isn’t rigged, however relatively is responsive and adaptable.
Votebeat’s protection highlights what analysis research have proven repeatedly: Situations of fraud in mail-in voting stay exceedingly uncommon. Even when ballots get rejected, that’s sometimes as a result of procedural errors — not makes an attempt at manipulation or deceit. Election directors throughout the nation work below strict, bipartisan protocols, together with signature checks and safe dealing with procedures, to guard integrity. Courts and election officers routinely affirm the reliability of mail ballots when these protocols are adopted. In each routine follow and below shut scrutiny, mail-in voting stands out as each safe and reliable.
What Trump stated:
“I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS…by signing an EXECUTIVE ORDER to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections.”
Reality:
Courts have dominated that Trump doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally change federal election guidelines, as they contemplate a number of lawsuits difficult his March government order.
In halting some provisions of that government order, for instance, a federal choose within the U.S. District Court docket for the District of Columbia wrote in April that “our Constitution entrusts Congress and the States — not the President — with the authority to regulate federal elections.” That ruling blocked Trump’s route to the U.S. Election Help Fee to take steps to require voters to show citizenship when registering to vote.
A federal choose in Massachusetts later blocked the identical provision of the order, writing that Trump exceeded his authority. That choose additionally blocked elements of the order telling the U.S. Justice Division to implement a poll receipt deadline of Election Day.
Nothing stops Trump from main an off-the-cuff motion, nevertheless. He’s arguably been doing that for years already, and whereas it has had some impression on coverage, voters haven’t actually modified their habits a lot.
