Trump Vows to Ban Mail-In Voting Before 2026 Midterms, Legal Experts Say He Can’t
The president’s executive order pledge sets up a political fight he is unlikely to win in court, but one that could further erode trust in U.S. elections.
Washington, August 19 EST: Donald Trump has made a career out of challenging the boundaries of power, and this week he trained his sights squarely on the way Americans vote. On Monday, the president vowed to issue an executive order ending mail-in ballots and curbing voting machines before the 2026 midterms.
The pledge plays directly into the narrative that has animated Trump since 2020 that the election system itself is crooked. He said his order would restore “honesty.” What he did not provide was proof. No matter. For Trump, evidence is less useful than repetition.
A Familiar Gambit
This is not the first time a president has tried to lean into election rules. But historically, real changes have come through Congress or state governments. Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act; George W. Bush approved the Help America Vote Act after the Florida recount disaster. In those cases, lawmakers set the terms, not executive diktats.
Trump is attempting something else. By promising a unilateral decree, he isn’t advancing legislation so much as staging a fight one that courts will almost certainly referee. And he knows it. The spectacle itself has political value.
The Constitutional Hard Stop
Here’s the blunt reality elections are state business. Governors, secretaries of state, and local clerks run the machinery. The Constitution gives Congress power to regulate federal elections if it chooses, but presidents sit outside that loop. As Reuters and The Washington Post both reported, legal experts are unanimous Trump cannot erase mail voting with a stroke of his pen.
The courts have drawn this line before. Attempts to restrict absentee ballots through federal action have been struck down, and quickly. That precedent is unlikely to change in 2026.
Why Pick This Fight?
For Trump, the legal weakness may be a feature, not a bug. He gets to promise what his base wants, rail against judges when they inevitably block him, and keep “rigged elections” in the bloodstream of American politics. It’s grievance politics as campaign strategy.
The danger, experts warn, is not that his executive order will stand. It’s that the constant drumbeat of fraud claims corrodes public trust. Every time a president suggests the system is fundamentally broken, faith in future results weakens. That distrust lingers, and it spreads.
Mail Voting From Pandemic Fix To Political Fault Line
During the COVID-19 pandemic, mail-in ballots surged. Roughly 65 million Americans used them in 2020, across red and blue states alike. Investigations by Trump’s own Justice Department found no evidence of widespread fraud. Still, the practice became a political scar.
Republicans, once champions of absentee voting in states like Florida, fractured. Some strategists now plead with their voters to bank ballots early. Others cling to Trump’s suspicion and warn against using the very system that could boost turnout. This contradiction is playing out in real time.
The Global Claim That Isn’t
Trump also insisted the U.S. is the only country that relies on mail-in voting. That is flatly false. Germany, Canada, the U.K., and dozens more use postal ballots in national contests. The procedures vary, but the practice is normal across democracies. What’s unusual is the attempt to delegitimize it wholesale.
What’s At Stake In 2026
If carried out, Trump’s order would land hardest on military voters abroad, seniors in care facilities, rural residents far from polling places, and shift workers who cannot spend hours waiting in line. These are not abstract categories they are millions of citizens who rely on mail ballots.
That’s why the order, if it comes, would be challenged instantly. States would sue. Civil rights groups would sue. Veterans’ organizations would sue. Judges would press the White House on statutory authority and likely freeze the directive before ballots are even printed.
The Larger Arc
Since 2020, American elections have been conducted under a cloud of suspicion Trump himself created. Each cycle has brought lawsuits, armed poll watchers, and a louder argument over who controls access to the ballot. Trump’s vow to ban mail-in voting fits this arc perfectly. Legally weak, politically potent, and aimed at keeping the spotlight fixed on him.
The real battleground remains what it has always been state legislatures, county election offices, and the courts. Presidents can talk tough. They can test limits. But in practice, it is the states and sometimes Congress that hold the power to shape how Americans vote.
That is the enduring irony of Trump’s announcement. He can promise to end mail voting all he wants. The law won’t let him. But the debate, the outrage, the legal fights those may serve his purpose better than any executive order ever could.
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A political science PhD who jumped the academic ship to cover real-time governance, Olivia is the East Coast's sharpest watchdog. She dissects power plays in Trenton and D.C. without bias or apology.
