President Donald Trump has reignited a fierce national debate over voting rights and election security with his latest push to overhaul the U.S. electoral system. On August 30 and 31, 2025, Trump took to Truth Social to announce plans for a sweeping executive order: mandatory voter identification for every vote, a near-total ban on mail-in voting, and a return to paper ballots for all elections. "Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. NO EXCEPTIONS! I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!! Also, No Mail-In Voting, Except For Those That Are Very Ill, And The Far Away Military. USE PAPER BALLOTS ONLY!!!" Trump posted, doubling down on his long-standing claims that American elections are vulnerable to fraud.
Trump’s move is not entirely new. At the start of his second term, he signed an executive order in March 2025 requiring proof of citizenship for federal elections. That order mandated that anyone registering to vote by mail must provide a U.S. passport, a REAL ID driver’s license, or another valid government-issued photo ID—despite the fact that non-citizens are already barred from voting in federal contests. Now, Trump’s latest order aims to further tighten the rules, barring mail-in voting for all but the “very ill” and military personnel stationed far from home, and eliminating electronic voting machines in favor of hand-counted paper ballots.
These proposals have drawn sharp reactions from across the political spectrum, and the legal and practical challenges are already mounting. In April 2025, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly blocked key provisions of Trump’s earlier executive order—specifically those requiring federal agencies to demand documentary proof of citizenship and to assess citizenship before distributing voter registration forms to public assistance recipients. According to the National News Desk, Kollar-Kotelly wrote that the order would cause “irreparable harm” to the agencies involved and that the U.S. Constitution “entrusts Congress and the States—not the President—with the authority to regulate federal elections.” Plaintiffs in the case included the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and the League of Women Voters Education Fund.
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told TNND in April that Trump would continue the fight for “election integrity” despite Democratic objections, which he claimed revealed “their disdain for commonsense safeguards like verifying citizenship.” Fields added, “Free and fair elections are the bedrock of our Constitutional Republic, and we’re confident in securing an ultimate victory in the courtroom.”
Trump’s rationale for these sweeping changes is rooted in his persistent—and widely debunked—claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him through widespread voter fraud. He has argued, without credible evidence, that mail-in voting and electronic machines are uniquely susceptible to manipulation. Trump has even cited Russian President Vladimir Putin as an ally in his crusade, telling Fox News’s Sean Hannity on August 15, 2025, that Putin advised, “You can’t have an honest election with mail-in voting.” Trump recounted, “He said, ‘Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting.’”
Yet, the numbers tell a more nuanced story. According to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, mail-in ballots accounted for 30% of all votes cast in the 2024 general election. At least 14 states and the District of Columbia saw mail-in turnout exceed 30%. Trump actually won half of those states, some with Republican officials overseeing the process, others with Democrats—underscoring that mail-in voting is not the exclusive domain of one party.
Within the Republican Party, Trump’s proposals have sparked both support and concern. Some GOP officials echo his worries about potential fraud. Michigan state House Majority Leader Bryan Posthumus, for instance, supports requiring proof of citizenship and photo ID, but cautions against scrapping mail-in voting altogether. “We shouldn’t just go off and get rid of voting by mail,” Posthumus told NBC News. “We need to buckle down and secure the weakness and vulnerability in it. … I’ve always been a proponent that it should be easy to vote and hard to cheat. As long as our vote-by-mail systems are secure, then the access to the ballot box that it allows for is a good thing.”
Others, like Vermont GOP chair Paul Dame, worry about disenfranchising military voters and those who depend on mail-in ballots due to health or logistical constraints. “I don’t think anyone supports a complete elimination. That would disenfranchise men and women overseas. I’m sure that’s not his intention,” Dame remarked. South Dakota GOP chair Jim Eschenbaum echoed the sentiment: “We can’t get rid of vote by mail because we’ve got military serving, and if anybody deserves a vote in our elections, it’s the people that are willing to die for us.”
Legal experts and election officials, meanwhile, have repeatedly pointed out that the president does not have unilateral authority over election procedures. The Constitution grants states the right to determine the “times, places, and manner” of federal elections, and any sweeping federal law would require congressional approval—a tall order given current partisan divides. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has vowed that Democrats would block any measure “that would make it even more difficult for Americans to vote.”
Despite Trump’s claims, evidence of widespread fraud in mail-in voting remains scant. The conservative Heritage Foundation tracked just 217 criminal convictions for election-related fraud between 2020 and 2025, across all voting methods. The Bipartisan Policy Center notes that mail-in ballots are subject to rigorous verification and that suspected fraud is referred to law enforcement for prosecution. Election security officials from both parties have also affirmed the reliability of existing systems, with Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office stating that any changes to the state’s voting process would require legislative approval.
Still, Trump’s focus on “election integrity” continues to resonate with his base. William Feely, a Republican National Committee member from Nebraska, wrote, “Under President Trump’s leadership, the RNC is dedicated to building upon our successful election integrity efforts from the 2024 election cycle. We stand ready to support any and all changes to our nation’s election laws as directed by the President and Congress.”
As the nation looks toward the 2026 midterm elections—billed as the first true referendum on Trump’s domestic and foreign policies since his return to office—the battle over how Americans vote is set to intensify. With legal battles already underway and political divisions deepening, the future of U.S. election law hangs in the balance, with millions of voters and the very concept of democracy watching closely.
