President Trump unveiled plans Monday to sign an executive order claiming to “help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections” by banning both mail-in voting and electronic tabulation machines.
“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 declared on Truth Social.
The president did not provide any evidence to back up his claims that voting machines are “highly inaccurate.” Most voters live in municipalities where they cast paper ballots that are scanned by voting machines and are subject to multiple checks to ensure accuracy.
“WE WILL BEGIN THIS EFFORT, WHICH WILL BE STRONGLY OPPOSED BY THE DEMOCRATS BECAUSE THEY CHEAT AT LEVELS NEVER SEEN BEFORE, by signing an EXECUTIVE ORDER to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections,” Trump went on.
The president did not elaborate on what the executive order would entail or when he would sign it.
Elections in the US are largely decentralized and administered at the state and local level, with some input from the federal government.
There are several laws on the books, such as the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that lay federal ground rules for states and municipalities.
The Federal Election Commission oversees campaign practices by candidates seeking national office, the Election Assistance Commission provides resources to states and local governments in administering elections and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency works to protect voting infrastructure.
Back in March 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order instructing federal agencies to find ways to expand voter registration — a move that was heavily criticized by Republicans.
Trump signed an executive order in March attempting to block states from tabulating mail-in ballots that have been postmarked by Election Day but delivered after the polls closed. That order was blocked by a court in June from taking effect, with a judge finding the president lacked the authority to impose such a rule.
Trump insisted Monday that he does have the authority to tell states how to handle vote counting.
“Remember, the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do,” he wrote.
The president’s renewed interest in election processes appears to have been triggered by his summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.
“You know, Vladimir Putin said something, one of the most interesting things,” Trump recounted during a post-summit interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
“He said, ‘Your election [in 2020] was rigged because you have mail-in voting.’ He said, ‘Mail-in voting, every election.’ He said, ‘No country has mail-in voting. It’s impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections.’”
Putin also claimed that if Trump had won re-election in 2020, the war in Ukraine wouldn’t have happened, according to the commander-in-chief.
“ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING, and everybody, IN PARTICULAR THE DEMOCRATS, KNOWS THIS,” Trump concluded. “I, AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, WILL FIGHT LIKE HELL TO BRING HONESTY AND INTEGRITY BACK TO OUR ELECTIONS.”
