President Donald Trump said Monday that he plans to sign an executive order aimed at ending mail-in voting and eliminating voting machines, a proposal that election experts note he cannot carry out on his own.
Trump has long criticized mail-in ballots, calling them fraudulent.
On his Truth Social account, Trump wrote: “THE MAIL-IN BALLOT HOAX, USING VOTING MACHINES THAT ARE A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER, MUST END, NOW!!!”
He also said his order would “help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections.”
According to the New York Times, the Constitution gives states the authority to set the “times, places and manner” of elections, with Congress able to override state rules.
That means Trump could not unilaterally end mail-in voting or require states to stop using voting machines, even if he returns to office.
KIRO 7 News has reached out to the office of Gov. Ferguson for comment.
California Governor Gavin Newsom responded to Trump, saying on X, “His plan to rig new Congressional seats is going to backfire — thanks to California.Now, he’s clamoring for other ways to cook the results."
Trump knows he is going to LOSE in 2026.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) August 18, 2025
His plan to rig new Congressional seats is going to backfire — thanks to California.
Now, he’s clamoring for other ways to cook the results.
This man reeks of DESPERATION.
Let’s keep up the pressure. pic.twitter.com/h3Nf23XNDq
Trump claimed in his post that states serve as “merely an agent” for the federal government in counting ballots and that they must follow the president’s instructions.
Legal scholars say this interpretation is at odds with constitutional law and decades of precedent.
He also repeated an inaccurate assertion that the United States is the “only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting.”
In reality, many democracies, including Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom, allow citizens to vote by mail under certain conditions.
Trump’s position comes despite evidence that Republicans made gains in mail-in voting during the 2024 elections after the party encouraged supporters to use it.
In past elections, skepticism toward the practice had sometimes disadvantaged GOP candidates, as Democrats more often embraced early and absentee ballots.
In his Truth Social post, Trump argued that Democrats are “virtually Unelectable” without mail-in voting.
He also said that electronic voting machines are inaccurate and expensive.
His remarks followed a recent summit with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in Alaska.
Trump told Fox News that Putin agreed with him that the 2020 election was “rigged” because of mail-in ballots, quoting Putin as saying, “Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting.”
It remains unclear what language Trump’s proposed executive order would contain or how he would attempt to enforce it, given that election administration is largely managed at the state level.
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