President Donald Trump made an unexpected pivot earlier this week after his diplomatic outreach and foreign policy meetings to attempt to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Amid talks of ceasefires, sanctions, tariffs, and other war resolution possibilities, the president brought up the topic of mail-in voting, claiming it was a fraudulent voting method and should be banned. An interesting tidbit is that Trump’s inspiration for this was a direct result of his diplomacy efforts, as, apparently, Russian President Vladimir Putin was the source of the renewed disdain toward mail-in voting.
“You know, Vladimir Putin said something — one of the most interesting things,” the president explained to Fox News host Sean Hannity. He said, ‘Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting.’ He said, ‘It’s impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections.”
However, this isn’t accurate. If it were, then the 2024 presidential election in which Trump defeated Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris was not an honest election. Yet, it absolutely was, and Trump won it with the help of mail-in voting.
Worries and concerns about fraudulent mail-in ballots are akin to seeing Bigfoot walk in the wild. It just doesn’t happen. Mail-in ballots are as secure as any other voting mechanism. Thinking otherwise is nothing but sheer paranoia. Why this baseless conspiracy still exists, especially after 2024, in which mail-in voting helped Trump win the presidential election, is mind-numbingly frustrating.
Later, the president then made a post on Truth Social bashing mail-in voting, proclaiming that he was going to lead a movement to remove it.
The president’s post was rife with inaccuracies, including that the United States is the only country to use mail-in voting. That, of course, is not true. But the caveat in all of this is that it was mail-in voting that helped propel Trump to victory. He had a much better GOTV strategy and ground game in the 2024 presidential election, which prioritized utilizing mail-in voting. This strategy worked. Instead of rejecting it, Trump should use his political genius to embrace it and maximize it in his favor.
Mail-in voting became controversial during the 2020 presidential election that happened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump and many of his supporters believe that Democrats used mail-in voting to cheat, despite no legitimate or substantive claims showing exactly how it was done. No investigations showed rampant fraud with mail-in voting. And, the U.S. has used mail-in voting for years, long before the 2020 election. At no other time were there accusations of widespread voting fraud.
Sure, there should probably be some reforms implemented. It would probably make sense that if a voter was to choose the convenience of mail-in voting, then there should be requirements to have that ballot arrive before Election Day. However, that and other possible reforms, can be sorted out later. The crux of the matter is mail-in balloting helps people vote.
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Furthermore, if done correctly, with a cogent strategy and dedicated effort to maximing its return, mail-in voting can be weaponized to be a wonderful tool for Trump and other Republicans. It is a way to make voting more convenient, which could increase the number of people who vote in each election. This is a very good thing, and being the marketing guru and superb businessman that Trump is, there is no doubt in my mind that he can use it to his advantage.
Trump should do what is right and beneficial. He should make mail-in voting great again.