Trump mail-in voting ban: Executive order before 2026

President Trump announced he will sign an executive order to abolish mail-in voting before the 2026 midterm elections, reigniting the “fraudulent election” conspiracy theory he raised after his 2020 defeat.

On Aug 18th, President Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Mail-in voting is very inaccurate, costly, and open to dispute. To ensure the 2026 midterms are conducted fairly, I will sign an executive order abolishing it.” He added, “I will lead a movement to eliminate mail-in voting,” explicitly linking the issue to his loss in 2020.

President Trump has long claimed mail-in voting enables fraud, repeatedly asserting that the system was a key factor in his 2020 defeat. In a Fox News interview on Aug 15th, shortly after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said Putin told him, “Because of the mail-in ballot system, a fraudulent election took place, and that’s why you lost.”

Later that day at the White House, President Trump called mail-in voting “corrupt” and vowed to “do everything possible to abolish it.” He added, “It is a bigger issue than redistricting. Trust me.”

He also criticized voting machines, saying they are “ten times more expensive than paper ballots with watermarks” and argued that marked paper ballots “allow faster determination of who won and who lost on Election Day.”

Mail-in voting has often been viewed as favoring Democrats, since groups more likely to use it—such as younger and more highly educated voters—tend to lean Democratic. By contrast, Republican voters, who are often older or live in rural areas, are more likely to vote in person. The move is interpreted as an effort to benefit Republicans in the 2026 midterms.

President Trump further argued that “states are merely agents of the federal government to count votes and prepare charts. They must follow what the federal government says.”

In response, Johanna Warshaw, spokesperson for the Democratic Governors Association, denounced President Trump’s plan as “a blatant attempt to suppress voters’ voices,” adding that “Democratic governors will do everything possible to stop Trump from undermining our basic freedoms.”

BY YEONGCHAE SONG [song.yeongchae@koreadaily.com]