Trump Vows to Eliminate Mail-In Ballots, Despite Constitutional Limits

President Donald Trump has renewed his push to abolish mail-in voting, promising to sign an executive order aimed at banning the practice ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The announcement, made Monday on social media and later reiterated during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, is the latest in a series of challenges to the nation’s voting systems.

According to The New York Times, Trump called mail-in ballots “the only way [Democrats] can get elected” and urged Republicans to resist their use, despite the fact that his own party benefited from expanded mail voting in 2024. He claimed his order was being drafted “by the best lawyers in the country.”

Legal experts, however, stress that the president lacks the authority to unilaterally change voting rules. Under the U.S. Constitution, states control how elections are conducted, with Congress holding the only power to override state laws. Any executive order seeking to restrict mail-in ballots would almost certainly face immediate legal challenges.

In March, courts blocked major portions of an executive order from Trump that sought to tighten registration rules and impose new mail ballot restrictions.

Trump’s comments revive familiar themes from his false claims about the 2020 election. That year, he repeatedly attacked mail-in ballots as fraudulent, even though he had used them himself, while Democrats embraced them during the pandemic.

Although Trump continued to disparage mail voting during the 2024 election, he simultaneously encouraged Republicans to vote early, a strategy that helped narrow the gap, though Democrats still led in overall mail-in participation.

State officials across the political spectrum have rejected Trump’s latest threats. John H. Merrill, Alabama’s former Republican secretary of state, emphasized that election authority rests with the states, while Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold called Trump’s plan an “all-out power grab” and vowed to fight it in court. Civil liberties groups, including the ACLU, have also pledged to challenge any such order.

The effort underscores Trump’s continued attempts to reshape how Americans vote. Still, as The New York Times notes, his campaign faces two immovable obstacles: the Constitution and state-level election officials, who remain firmly in charge of how ballots—mail-in or otherwise—are cast and counted.