Headline Roundup • August 18th, 2025
Trump Announces Plan to Eliminate Mail-In Ballots, Machine Voting Ahead of 2026 Midterm
Summary from the AllSides News Team
President Donald Trump said on Monday he would sign an executive order to eliminate mail-in ballots and voting machines ahead of the 2026 midterm election.
The Details: The announcement follows Trump’s Alaska meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, where Trump said Putin believed the 2020 election was rigged due to mail-in voting. According to the US Election Assistance Commission, mail-in ballots comprised 30.3% of the turnout for the 2024 election–a decrease from its peak in 2020 (43%) but still more than the percentage of mail-in voters before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key Quotes: Trump wrote on Truth Social, “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.”
For Context: According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 28 states in the US let voters request a mail ballot without giving a reason, including some Republican-led states like Arizona, Alaska, and Florida. The International IDEA shows 34 countries permit mail-in voting in some form, with 12 countries allowing all voters to vote by mail, and 22 countries allowing only some voters.
How the Media Covered It: Fox News (Right bias) highlighted Trump’s claims that the changes are needed to ensure election integrity, and noted support from GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Outlets on the left, including CNN (Lean Left) and ABC News (Lean Left) fact-checked Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen, that mail-in voting increased chances of fraud, and that the US was the “only country in the world” to use mail-in voting. Reuters (Center) included that several Republican states supported mail-in voting. It also pointed out that Trump voted by mail in previous elections, and encouraged his voters to do the same in 2024.
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Featured Coverage of this Story
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
President Donald Trump declared that he will spearhead a push to eliminate the use of mail-in voting and voting machines in U.S. elections.
U.S. President Donald Trump pledged on Monday to issue an executive order to end the use of mail-in ballots and voting machines ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, a move likely to spark legal challenges by the states.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
President Donald Trump on Monday wrote in a post to his social media platform that he will lead a "movement" to get rid of mail-in ballots and voting machines, claiming, without providing evidence, that they lead to voter fraud.
