Latest news with #mailinvoting
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Raffensperger says mail-in voting system is safe as Trump claims they ‘must end now'
Georgia's Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, reaffirmed the security of the state's absentee voting system amid President Donald Trump's call for an executive order to ban mail-in voting nationwide. Trump took to Truth Social on Monday, saying: 'Elections can never be honest with mail-in ballots/voting…and I and the Republican Party will fight like hell to bring honesty and integrity back to our elections. The mail-in ballot hoax, using voting machines that are a complete and total disaster, must end now.' However, the enforceability of such an order is uncertain, as individual states control their voting processes. 'Everything we worked on builds voter trust, and trust is the real gold standard,' Raffensperger said, emphasizing the importance of maintaining confidence in Georgia's election system. 'There is no power for a president to issue an executive order. These things are left to the states,' Charlie Bailey, chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia, said. TRENDING STORIES: Suspect in I-75 hit-and-run that killed truck driver identified as ex-Milton police lieutenant Elementary student fires gun at Gwinnett school toilet; parents could face charges Police identify woman whose body was found in SW Atlanta storage unit Georgia has been a focal point for election conspiracies and claims of voter fraud, making the security of its voting systems a topic of significant interest. Raffensperger said Georgia's elections, including mail-in ballots, are among the most secure in the country, with constant checks on voting machines to ensure integrity. Bailey expressed skepticism about the legal authority of the president to halt mail-in voting, noting that Republicans also use absentee ballots. Georgia lawmakers are considering potential changes to the state's election laws, with study committees preparing reports for the upcoming legislative session. As discussions continue over the future of mail-in voting, Raffensperger said Georgia remains committed to ensuring the security and trustworthiness of its election processes.
CBS News
2 hours ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Trump vows to try banning mail-in voting before 2026 midterm elections — can he do that?
President Trump promised Monday to work to end mail-in voting and said work is already underway on an executive order to ban it before the 2026 midterm elections, although the Constitution does not give him this power. "We, as a Republican Party, are going to do everything possible that we get rid of mail-in ballots," he said during an Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "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." "Mail-in ballots are corrupt," the president said. He suggested the method is susceptible to voter fraud, claiming in California, "it's so corrupt, where some people get five, six, seven ballots delivered to them." He has often insisted mail-in ballots can be tampered with or enable people to vote multiple times. But soon after the 2020 election, Debra Cleaver, founder and CEO of VoteAmerica, a nonpartisan voter information site, dismissed the idea of widespread voter fraud as "a myth." "The outgoing ballots have a barcode, and then when you send your ballot in, you put it in a return envelope and that barcode has to match the barcode that was sent out in order for the ballot to be counted," she explained to CBS News. After that election, the director of the nation's cyber security agency, Christopher Krebs, called the 2020 vote "the most secure in American history." In 2024, when Mr. Trump won the presidential election, the U.S. Census Bureau said nearly a third of ballots nationwide were cast by mail. In a social media post earlier in the day, the president said of the impending order that it would "help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections." He claimed that the states "are merely an 'agent' for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes," and that "[t]hey 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." But Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution says it's the states that have the authority to regulate elections, not the president, and this may be changed only by Congress. Mr. Trump also claimed, "We are now the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting" and argued, "You will never have an honest election if you have mail-in. And 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." In fact, more than 30 other countries allow voting by mail for some or all voters, according to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, an intergovernmental advocacy group based in Sweden. Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, and Denmark are among them. In the U.S., mail voting is widespread: 28 states allow any voter to request a mail-in ballot, while the rest require a a documented reason such as illness or military service. The pandemic gave mail voting a huge boost in the 2020 elections. About 43% of voters cast their ballot by mail that year, according to a report by the Election Assistance Commission. In 2024, mail voting dropped off, representing just over 30% of the total votes cast — about 46.8 million votes. The commission said that last year's numbers still exceeded pre-pandemic levels. The topic of mail-in voting came up during Mr. Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last Friday, too. After the two met Friday, the president told Fox News' Sean Hannity that "Vladimir Putin, smart guy, said, 'You can't have an honest election, election with mail-in voting.' And he said, 'There's not a country in the world that uses it now.'" Mr. Trump said the two talked about the 2020 election and that Putin told him, "You won that election by so much, and that's (mail voting) how [Biden] got it." Audits and investigations, including some conducted by Trump supporters and Republican secretaries of state, showed no evidence that the 2020 election results were inaccurate. David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, pointed out in a statement to CBS News that mail-in voting has been around since the Civil War and said getting rid of mail voting "is an incredibly bad idea that would make our elections much less secure and vulnerable to interference." "Requiring states to eliminate or replace the voting machines that confirmed the election of this president, just 15 months before a midterm election and less than a year before primaries, is not possible and would result in chaos," said Becker, who is also a CBS News election law contributor. Sara Cook and Jenna Gibson Riggins contributed to this report.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Schumer: Trump attack on mail-in voting ‘not based in fact or reality'
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday criticized President Trump's broadside against mail-in voting, saying that right-wing claims of widespread voter fraud are inaccurate and 'not based in fact or reality.' Trump earlier in the day announced that he plans to 'lead a movement' to end the use of mail-in ballots in elections. The ballots were used more widely in the 2020 presidential contest due to COVID-19. Trump lost that race to former President Biden, which he has repeatedly and without evidence claimed was the result of a rigged election. Schumer said his party will do everything possible to stand in the way of blocking mail-in voting in the coming years. 'Two facts: Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and vote by mail is safe, secure, and reliable,' Schumer said in a statement. 'Let's be clear — this is not based in fact or reality, but it is yet another way for Trump to silence Americans from using their voice in the democratic process and implement Jim Crow laws across America.' 'Senate Democrats will make sure that any and every measure that would make it even more difficult for Americans to vote will be dead on arrival in the Senate and will continue to fight to protect our democracy,' the Democratic leader added. Trump made his remarks in a lengthy Monday morning Truth Social post, which kept up his drumbeat against mail-in ballots. '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, which 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,' Trump wrote in his post. '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.' 'THE MAIL-IN BALLOT HOAX, USING VOTING MACHINES THAT ARE A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER, MUST END, NOW!!!' he added later on. Trump, however, does not have the power to unilaterally change voting laws. Those must be changed at the state level. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump doubles down on ending mail-in ballots at Zelensky press event
President Trump doubled down on his plans to end mail-in ballots and target voting machines, calling them ways to get Democrats elected while taking questions from reporters alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office. 'We gotta stop mail-in voting. And the Republicans have to lead the charge. The Democrats want it. Because they have horrible policy. If you have mail-in voting, you're not going to have many Democrats get elected. That's bigger than anything having to do with redistricting and the Republicans have to get smart,' Trump said on Monday. He reiterated that he plans to sign an executive order that eliminates mail-in ballots nationwide ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, which he announced on Truth Social earlier on Monday. 'Mail-in ballots are corrupt. Mail-in ballots, you can never have a real democracy with mail-in ballots and we, as a Republican Party, are going to do everything possible that we get rid of mail-in ballots,' he said. 'We're going to start with an executive order that's being written now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail-in ballots. Because they're corrupt,' Trump said. 'You know that we're the only country in the world — I believe, I may be wrong — but just about the only country in the world that uses them because of what's happened, massive fraud all over the place.' 'We would get secure elections, we'd get much faster results,' he added. 'With paper ballots, you have the results that night.' At one point during his comments on U.S. voting, he turned to Zelensky. The two were meeting to discuss Trump's push for the end to the war with Russia. European leaders were also at the White House for the Zelensky visit, which comes days after Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. 'I hate to take your time on this,' Trump said, touching Zelensky's shoulder. He pointed to a reporter in the room, adding, 'But I'm glad you asked me that question.' 'When you go to a voting booth and you do it the right way and you go to a state that runs it properly, you go in — they even ask me, they ask me for my license plate. … I said, 'I don't know if I have it.' They said, 'sir, you have to have it.' Very impressed actually,' he continued. 'But it's very hard to cheat,' he said, adding that California is 'corrupt' and claiming, without evidence, that people get multiple ballots sent to them. The president has previously pushed unproven claims about widespread voting fraud involving mail-in ballots and insisted that the 2020 election, which he lost to former President Biden, was 'rigged.' Nearly a third of ballots cast in the 2024 election were submitted by mail, according to a U.S. Election Assistance Commission report released in June. In the 2020 election during the COVID-19 pandemic, mail-in ballots hit a record 43 percent level while they hit 30.3 percent in the 2024 election. Efforts to dramatically overhaul the federal election system have faced legal roadblocks in recent months, including an executive order Trump signed in March that sought to prevent states from counting mail-in ballots that were postmarked by Election Day but arrived later. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Fox News
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Trump to issue executive order to end 'corrupt' mail-in ballots
President Donald Trump says an executive order is being written by his administration to stop mail-in voting.
