Mail-in voting is so ingrained and widespread that Republicans have learned to benefit from it — unless the president pulls the rug out with repeated attacks.
President Trump is threatening to wage war on mail-in ballots — and the GOP has to hope he thinks again before the 2026 midterms.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said he is “going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS,” and he’ll start off with “an EXECUTIVE ORDER to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 midterm elections.”
Trump likes the idea of in-person, same-day voting, which has much to recommend it.
But mail-in and early voting are so ingrained and widespread that they aren’t going anywhere.
Most Republicans have concluded that there’s no alternative to making use of these modes of voting, and crucially, they managed — most of the time — to get Trump on board in 2024.
This aided the Republican get-out-the-vote operation in a close election.
Clearly, though, Trump believes that mail-in voting is a Democratic plot, and he also hates contemporary voting machines.
Old-school paper ballots don’t guarantee honesty, however: In an infamous instance of voter fraud, allies of Lyndon Johnson stuffed Box 13 with enough ballots to put him over the top in the very narrow 1948 Senate Democratic primary in Texas.
