President Donald Trump announced Monday that he intends to sign an executive order banning the use of mail-in ballots and electronic voting machines in federal elections, setting the stage for a fierce political and legal battle ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The move, Trump argued, is necessary to restore public confidence in American elections, which he says have been plagued by fraud, mismanagement, and manipulation since the rapid expansion of vote-by-mail and the widespread adoption of computerized voting systems.
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“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,” Trump wrote in a social media post to TruthSocial.
Elections in the United States are primarily run by state governments, not Washington.
Legal experts were quick to note that the Constitution gives states the authority to administer elections, with Congress—not the President—holding limited power to regulate them.
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“The President has no power constitutionally to dictate to states the manner in which they conduct national elections,” said Richard Pildes, a professor of law at New York University.
Still, Trump insisted that states act as “agents” of the federal government when conducting elections and therefore must follow presidential direction. That claim, however, is likely to be tested in court if he proceeds with the executive order.
Conservatives and liberals have long raised alarms about electronic voting systems, which rely on proprietary software and digital tabulation.
Critics argue that these machines—produced by a handful of private companies—are vulnerable to hacking, misprogramming, or even deliberate tampering.
While election officials insist that voting machines are more accurate than hand counts, skeptics point to high-profile errors in past elections, such as misreported totals and technical breakdowns that left voters frustrated.
Democrats have been critical of electronic voting machines and have, at times, raised significant concerns about their reliability and security.
In Georgia, leading Democrats criticized the state’s decision to use Dominion ballot-marking devices, arguing they were vulnerable to tampering and lacked the transparency of hand-marked paper ballots.
Lawsuits were filed seeking to block their use, with election security advocates pointing to risks of hacking and software flaws.
The 2020 HBO documentary Kill Chain: The Cyber War on America’s Elections highlighted potential vulnerabilities in computerized voting, featuring interviews with security experts who warned that machines could be manipulated and leave elections open to interference.
Together, Democratic lawmakers, advocacy groups, and investigative media have questioned whether technology-based voting undermines public trust, pressing for greater reliance on paper ballots and robust auditing.
Transparency advocates on both the left and right argue that computerized counting takes the process out of the hands of ordinary citizens and puts it into “black box” systems controlled by vendors and bureaucrats.
Hand-counting paper ballots, though slower, is seen by many conservatives as the only way to ensure true election integrity.
“If we can count thousands of dollars by hand in banks every day, we can count votes by hand in our elections,” said one Republican election attorney.
Mail-in voting surged during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, when states rapidly expanded access to absentee ballots.
Since then, Democrats have embraced it as a means of boosting turnout, while Republicans have expressed concerns that it opens the door to fraud and abuse.
Though cases of proven fraud are relatively rare, conservatives argue that the system’s weaknesses make it ripe for exploitation.
Among the chief criticisms:
- Ballot Harvesting: In some states, third parties are allowed to collect and deliver large numbers of ballots, raising concerns about coercion or tampering.
- Chain of Custody Issues: Once a ballot leaves the hands of the voter, it can be difficult to track and ensure that it is counted securely.
- Signature Verification Failures: Critics say standards for matching signatures are often lax or inconsistently enforced.
- Mass Mailings: Sending ballots to outdated voter rolls has resulted in ballots being delivered to wrong addresses, with opportunities for misuse.
Many Republicans contend that Democrats have used mail-in voting to engineer advantages in battleground states, especially with organized ballot collection efforts in urban centers.
Trump’s announcement comes as Republicans seek to defend their majorities in both the House and Senate. The November 2026 midterms will serve as the first nationwide referendum on Trump’s policies since his return to the White House in January.
Democrats, who benefit disproportionately from mail-in ballots due to their popularity among urban voters, students, and senior citizens, quickly denounced the move as voter suppression.
They are expected to mount legal challenges in states where mail-in voting is well established, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona.
Republicans, however, argue that eliminating mail-in ballots would level the playing field and restore voter confidence. “If we can’t trust our elections, we can’t trust our government,” said a conservative activist in Texas.
Adding to the controversy, Trump said he discussed the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting last week, and claimed that Putin agreed mail-in ballots should be eliminated.
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The remark is likely to fuel further criticism from Democrats that Trump is aligning U.S. election policy with the Kremlin’s preferences.
Despite the political storm, Trump’s call reflects a growing movement among conservatives to return to simpler, more transparent methods of voting. Several counties in states like Arizona and Nevada have experimented with hand-counting ballots, while others are considering bans on electronic tabulators altogether.
Election officials counter that such measures are costly, time-consuming, and potentially less accurate.
But for Trump and his allies, the tradeoff is worth it.
The push is not just about efficiency—it is about restoring faith in the democratic process.
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