The Executive Order to Restrict Vote by Mail: Trump is still trying to suppress your vote
Joyce Vance
Republican voters regularly use mail-in voting. Nearly one in
five registered Republicans vote by mail. Trump himself uses it.
But in his role as president, he has an almost pathological dislike for the
practice. One in
four Democrats votes by mail.
Data on who votes by mail suggests that many Americans like
it and have confidence in it. For instance, States United reports that
40% of voters who are 65 and over vote by mail. And in 2024, 905,343 members of
the military and Americans living abroad voted by mail.
Trump has defended casting his own ballots by mail, saying he
did it “because I’m president” and “I had a lot of different things” to do. But
when others do it, there is cheating. In essence, the attacks on voting by mail
have become a convenient, if false, vehicle for keeping the voter fraud
narrative Trump loves to push on the front burner.
Trump has been trying to end Americans’ ability to vote by
mail. His most recent effort, after several failed ones, started with a new
executive order he signed on March 31 of this year: “ENSURING
CITIZENSHIP VERIFICATION AND INTEGRITY IN FEDERAL ELECTIONS.” It’s a plot
to transfer control over who gets to vote from the states, who have that
authority under the Constitution, to the federal government, which does not.
It would have been unimaginable for the Carter, Clinton,
Obama or Biden administrations to restrict voting like this. Even for the
Reagan or Bush administrations. The federal government is going to prevent
states from using the U.S. Mail to send out ballots, unless the states let the
federal government decide who is eligible to vote—under rules set by each
state. It’s rank voter suppression, removing decision making authority from the
states and vesting it in the Trump administration, which has repeatedly demonstrated
its interest in winning, even if that means keeping Democrats from voting or
refusing to count their votes when they do.
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