By The Herald Editorial Board
Six months into his second term and President Trump already is recycling musty and tired grievances, this time thanks to a suggestion from Russian President Vladimir Putin during their brief meeting last week in Alaska that Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden because of mail-in voting.
“You know, Vladimir Putin said something, one of the most interesting things,” Trump said during an interview on Fox News following the summit. “He said, ‘Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting.’ He said, ‘Mail-in voting, every election.’ He said, ‘No country has mail-in voting. It’s impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections.’”
And who better to advise a U.S. president on honest elections than Putin?
Triggered, Trump quickly announced he would bring “honesty” to the 2026 midterm elections — for which he has also launched a mid-decade gerrymandering frenzy among red and blue states — by issuing an executive order, now being written “by the best lawyers in the country,” to end mail-in voting.
Although Trump has used such ballots at least twice in recent elections, he has decried vote-by-mail repeatedly before and after the elections in 2016, 2020 and 2024, under the erroneous belief that mail-in ballots favor Democrats, a claim he repeated Monday, although he’s never explained how such ballots are used only to Democrats’ benefit.
“It’s time that the Republicans get tough and stop it because the Democrats want it. It’s the only way they can get elected,” he said during his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky.
At the same time, Trump also took aim at what he claimed were “highly inaccurate” voting machines, which along with mail-in ballots, cover the two primary methods of voting; aside from raising hands.
Unpacking, point by point:
Fairness: Mail-in elections — a bit of a misnomer because in Washington and in other states using mail-in ballots a majority of ballots are returned to drop boxes rather than put in the mail — don’t significantly favor one party or the other. A 2020 Stanford University study of the then-three states that had implemented universal vote-by-mail for elections between 1996 and 2018 found that vote-by-mail did not appear to affect either party’s share of turnout, did not appear to increase either party’s vote share and modestly increased overall average turnout rates.
Democratic Party voters, in states that allow a choice of vote-by-mail or polling places did show a preference for mail-in ballots over polling places in the 2020 election as compared with Republican voters. At a national level, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 58 percent of Democratic voters used mail-in ballots, compared to 29 percent of Republicans, but that likely reflects Trump’s and the Republican Party’s messaging on use of mail-in ballots, messaging that changed from the GOP for 2024, bringing a slight increase in Republican voters using mail-in ballots last year.
Fraud: While voting experts, cited by FactCheck.org, have found that instances of voter fraud via mail-in or absentee ballots are more common than in-person voting fraud, the number of known cases is relatively rare. And states and county election offices have stepped up efforts to boost confidence in elections, from voter registration to ballot distribution, collection and tabulation.
Countries using vote-by-mail: Here, too, Trump — and Putin — are mistaken. The U.S. is one of 12 countries that allows mail-in or “postal” voting, including Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany, while another 22 allow at least some voters to use mail-in ballots.
Voting machine accuracy: Almost all voting and tabulation machines in all states use paper ballots, which assures a hard-copy record that can be confirmed by a recount by machine or hand. And machine recounts have been shown to be more accurate than hand recounts.
Trump’s ability to change election law by executive order: In a word, unlikely. Election law is a matter for the states and Congress to set, not the executive branch.
Trump, in a Truth Social post, claimed that “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.”
The Constitution is abundantly clear that states run elections and Congress can set regulations regarding elections: “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 (stet) Senators.”
There is no role in election law outlined in the Constitution for the executive branch.
Any order signed by Trump to do away with mail-in ballots will almost certainly face legal challenges from this state and others, as Washington and other states filed suit in April when Trump signed an executive order to make changes to the federal voter registration form that would require showing proof of citizenship as well as barring the counting of any mail-in ballot received after Election Day, even if postmarked by Election Day.
Trump could and may convince Republicans in the House of Representatives to adopt restrictions of mail-in ballots, as it did with the SAVE Act, which also would have required all voters to resubmit voter registration forms with proof of citizenship, among other provisions that rummaged around for problems to solve. The SAVE Act passed the House in April, but since then has been blocked by a filibuster in the Senate, a fate that a bill barring mail-in voting would likely share.
There are opportunities yet that can make voter registration and voting itself more secure and easier to access, in particular to improve voter participation; we wouldn’t want to be the ones to show Alexander Hamilton the 23 percent ballot return rate for Snohomish County for the Aug. 5 primary.
But the responsibilities for adopting and enforcing election law are matters for the states and Congress; not for presidents, and certainly not at the suggestion of one from Russia.
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