August 18, 2025
So that’s a lot. And we have a real democracy. President Trump just saw that when he won the 2024 election. But you may be wondering – can he do that can he do away with mail in ballots? Well – let’s get into it.
First — that was President Trump this afternoon at the white house expanding on this post he put on social media this morning where he talked about ending the use of mail in ballots. This is not new. President Trump has been opposed to mail in ballots for years. What *is* new is the timing. This is all coming up today because of Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last Friday. Trump told FoxNews that Putin told him “your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting.” And then coincidentally trump put out the post. Side note — how does Putin know that about the inner workings of our elections and the counting of ballots? It could be his opinion. But Russia isn’t exactly the bastion of free and fair elections – so his opinion on this probably should not sway the president of the United States. So if it’s not his opinion, how else would Putin know that? I thought Russia wasn’t involved in our elections? I’ll let you decide what you think about that — regardless that’s a discussion we’re going to have to have on anther day.
Let’s come back to what trump wants in this country. Very important before we get into the legalities here — I want to make sure you understand that there is no evidence that has been proven in any United States court of law certainly since candidate Donald Trump entered national politics 10 years ago — that backs up his claim that mail in ballots are corrupt. Hear me clearly on this. I am not talking about how you *feel* about mail in ballots. You may *feel* like they’re corrupt but I don’t report on your feelings — i am simply stating the fact that there is no evidence that has proven credible in any court of law in the United States that there is widespread corruption in u-s elections because of mail in ballots. It just doesn’t exists and we have been using mail in ballots in the United States in some form since the 17th century.
Ok – let’s talk about the legality of what trump wants to do. Well, we gotta start with the constitution of the United States. In article one section 4 clearly says “the times, places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof”. That means state law primarily determines how elections are conducted. States get to run elections in the way they see fit– including elections for US House Representatives and US Senators. That’s why we have different rules in ever state for federal elections including early voting rules, rules about how and when votes can be counted and even rules about which votes cannot be counted. But there’s another sentence in the constitution immediately after — that says –“but the congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of chusing senators”. This part of the constitution allows the United States House and Senate to pass federal laws that make or alter state election laws. The framers of the constitution put that part in there to protect against rogue states that may choose not to hold elections for congress. Basically it’s a backstop to ensure we get an election for president and congress every four years and a midterm in between. This second sentence in the constitution is how we got federal election laws like the voting rights act in 1965, the national voter registration act in 1993 and the help America vote act in 2002. So yes – the federal government can implement some laws that standardize federal elections in all the states but we don’t see it very often.
Now – let’s talk about how mail in ballots fit into the equation. Well – you need to understand there’s a difference between absentee ballots and mail-in ballots though the two are sometimes interchangeable. Technically those are two different things but it gets confusing because absentee ballots can be mailed in to be counted. So – in this case it’s unclear if the president is talking about getting rid of absentee ballots too when he is talking about getting rid of mail in ballots. The fact is – we need to see exactly what this executive order says and what authority trump is going to try and use. Generally though — the president does not have the power to just get rid of mail in ballots in every state all by himself through an executive order. And if he tried – he would likely be stopped in the courts immediately. Instead, if he wanted mail in ballots gone, the president would have to get congress to pass a law – but that would be difficult given the current make up of the house and senate because even if all republicans in the House vote yes and all republicans in the Senate vote yes – trump would need 7 democrats in the senate to also vote yes to get the bill past the filibuster– and that’s not going to happen. So what’s trump’s other option? Well he may try to use his executive order to withhold federal election dollars to states that have mail in voting as a way of trying to force them to change their mail in voting laws. But that too – if it happens– would be challenged in the courts because of the constitution that says states get to conduct their elections in the way they see fit. For the record — lots of states – including red states and swing states allow state-wide mail-in voting or no-excuse absentee voting. People in those states like it and have been voting that way for decades successfully before President Trump came into office.
Watch President Trump discuss mail in ballots here.
