The White House is moving to eliminate mail-in voting and electronic ballot machines, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Monday, doubling down on President Donald Trump’s latest demand to overhaul how Americans cast their ballots.
The announcement came after Trump posted to his social media platform that he would “lead a movement” to ban both mail-in ballots and voting machines, which he again claimed — without evidence — are a source of widespread fraud. “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. He argued that paper ballots with watermarks are the only way to ensure election integrity.
Later, while hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House, Trump reiterated the point to reporters. “We’re going to start with an executive order that’s being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail-in ballots because they’re corrupt,” he said. He added that Republicans must “get tough” and back the plan because, in his words, “it’s the only way [Democrats] can get elected.”
Leavitt, speaking at a press briefing, framed the president’s comments as part of a broader effort to restore confidence in elections. “The President has been very clear that the American people deserve secure, transparent elections,” she said. She declined to provide details on the executive order but emphasized that the White House sees mail-in voting as vulnerable.
The plan is all but certain to set off legal challenges. Under the Constitution, state legislatures — not the president — control how elections are run, though Congress can regulate the process. Trump’s argument that states act merely as “agents” of the federal government in tabulating votes is at odds with decades of established law.
Mail-in voting has become deeply embedded in American elections. Nearly half the country voted by mail in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, and many states have continued to expand access since. Studies consistently show that fraud in mail-ballot systems is exceedingly rare, with built-in safeguards such as signature verification and ballot tracking. Even Trump’s own party promoted early and mail-in voting during the 2024 campaign as a way to maximize turnout.
Critics also noted Trump’s unusual reliance on Russian President Vladimir Putin to bolster his case. After meeting Putin in Alaska last week, Trump told Fox News that the Russian leader had called mail-in ballots a path to dishonest elections. “Vladimir Putin, smart guy, said you can’t have an honest election with mail-in voting,” Trump said. Putin’s remarks came despite Russia’s own use of mail-in ballots — and international condemnation of its 2024 election as neither free nor fair.
Fiona Hill, Trump’s former national security adviser on Russia, called the moment a familiar tactic. “This is Vladimir Putin, as usual, trying to manipulate U.S. domestic politics,” Hill said on CBS. “He wants to sow chaos in the American electoral system ahead of the midterms.”
For now, Trump is promising swift action. Whether his executive order can survive the courts — or even pass constitutional muster — is another question entirely.
