President Donald Trump announced Monday his intention to eliminate mail-in ballots through executive action, following what he described as reinforcing comments from Russian President Vladimir Putin about American voting practices.

On the morning of Aug. 18, President Trump took to his Truth Social platform to declare his comprehensive assault on American voting methods. In a post, Trump announced: “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.”

The president claimed that voting machines “cost Ten Times more than accurate and sophisticated Watermark Paper, which is faster, and leaves NO DOUBT, at the end of the evening, as to who WON, and who LOST, the Election”. He asserted without evidence that mail-in ballots make elections fundamentally corrupt, stating “You will never have an honest election if you have mail-in.”

Trump explicitly credited his recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin for reigniting his focus on mail-in voting. During a Fox News interview, Trump recounted Putin’s comments from their Friday summit in Alaska: “Vladimir Putin said something — one of the most interesting things. He said, ‘Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting’.”

According to Trump, Putin told him: “It’s impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections,” and claimed that “no country” uses mail-in voting. Trump also alleged that Putin said, “You won that election by so much, and that’s how [Biden] got it.”

Trump’s assertion that the United States is “the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting” is demonstrably false. According to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, at least 34 countries or territories permit postal voting, including Australia (which has used mail-in voting for over a century), Canada, Germany, and South Korea.

Then, Monday afternoon, during a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump confirmed that his administration is actively drafting the promised executive order. “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,” Trump stated.

Trump directed his criticism specifically at fellow Republicans, demanding party unity on the issue: “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.”

Trump’s allegations about mail-in voting and voting machines lack substantive evidence to support them.

Extensive research from multiple sources, including conservative organizations like the Heritage Foundation, consistently demonstrates that mail-in voting fraud is exceptionally rare and does not occur at levels that would affect election outcomes. The most comprehensive data available shows that fraudulent mail ballot cases represent a minuscule fraction of all votes cast, typically less than 0.01% even in studies specifically designed to identify such fraud. Multiple academic studies, government investigations, and statistical analyses conducted by both partisan and nonpartisan organizations have reached the same conclusion: mail-in voting is secure and does not increase fraud rates compared to in-person voting.

Following Fox News’s $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over false 2020 election claims, Newsmax has now agreed to pay $67 million to resolve its own defamation lawsuit with the voting technology company for broadcasting similar unfounded allegations about the presidential election.

The Constitution provides clear guidance on election administration authority, and it does not favor Trump’s position. Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution, known as the Elections Clause, grants state legislatures primary authority to determine the “Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections” for Congress.

For presidential elections, Article II, Section 1 gives states exclusive power to appoint their electors “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct”. Legal scholars emphasize this represents “one of states’ few enumerated constitutional powers” that “may not be preempted by federal action.”

While the Constitution does provide for federal oversight of elections, that power belongs to Congress, not the president. The Elections Clause grants Congress authority to “make or alter” state election regulations, but assigns no such role to the president.