Trump vows to eliminate mail-in ballots, voting machines before 2026 midterms

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00:00President Donald Trump said he'll sign an executive order to lead a movement to get

00:04rid of mail-in ballots and what he called controversial voting machines before the

00:082026 midterm elections. I am going to lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots and also

00:16while we're at it, highly inaccurate, very expensive and seriously controversial voting

00:21machines, which cost 10 times more than accurate and sophisticated watermark paper,

00:25which is faster and leaves no doubt at the end of the evening as to who won and who lost the

00:31election, Trump posted to Truth Social Monday morning. We will begin this effort, which will

00:36be strongly opposed by the Democrats because they cheat at levels never seen before. By signing

00:41an executive order to help bring honesty to the 2026 midterm elections, he added. It's unclear what

00:47effect the order will have. The Constitution gives states authority over elections. The American

00:52Civil Liberties Union criticized Trump's social media posts, providing a statement to The Guardian.

00:57Mail-in voting remains a vital safeguard of our democracy. It ensures that voters with disabilities,

01:03those without transportation access and others who rely on its flexibility and access can exercise

01:09their right to vote. President Trump's attempts to undermine a safe, proven and reliable method of

01:14voting that he himself uses, along with his attacks on voting technology, are just another part of his

01:20strategy to sow distrust in our elections and prevent voters from holding him accountable,

01:25a representative from the ACLU said in a statement. For years, Trump claimed without offering proof

01:31that mail-in voting enables large-scale voter fraud. He often referred to the 2020 presidential election,

01:37which he lost as rigged or unfair. He's repeatedly criticized the increased use of mail-in ballots during

01:44the COVID-19 pandemic, when many states expanded access to help people avoid in-person contact.

01:50Here's what Trump said back in April of 2020.

01:53If you're a senior citizen and if you're somebody that needs it, I'm all for it. But they have to be

01:59very careful because you know the things with bundling and all of the things that are happening with

02:03votes by mail, where thousands of votes are gathered. And I'm not going to say which party does it,

02:11but thousands of votes are gathered and they come in and they're dumped in a location. And then all

02:16of a sudden you lose elections that you think you're going to win. I won't stand for it.

02:21According to a report released in June by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission,

02:26about 30 percent of voters cast their ballots by mail in the 2024 U.S. election. And that was down

02:31from 43 percent in 2020. The report says that 1.2 percent of mail-in ballots, which is about 584,000,

02:39were rejected in the 2024 election. Of those, nearly 41 percent were rejected for having a

02:46non-matching or incomplete signature. For Straight Arrow News, I'm Lauren Keenan.

02:51If you want more on this story, download the Straight Arrow News app or visit san.com.