In a fact-free and shockingly authoritarian rant on Truth Social on the morning of August 18, convicted felon/adjudicated sexual abuser/President Trump posted that he will issue an executive order that will let him seize control over the 2026 mid-term elections throughout the country.
Trump wrote that he plans to “lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots,” claimed without proof that Democrats are the ones who cheat in elections, that voting machines are slower and more expensive than counting “water mark” paper ballots, and wrote that “we are now the only country in the world that uses mail-in voting.”
That is a lie.
The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) in Stockholm Sweden identified 33 countries globally that use postal voting, with Europe having the largest number of countries using mail-in ballots. Over 100 countries allow their citizens to vote by mail while living abroad. Some countries that use mail-in ballots include the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, South Korea, Iceland and Luxembourg.
Trump is continuing to spread lies about mail-in voting even though he and his wife requested and submitted mail-in ballots in Florida in 2020, instead of voting in person.
Trump also wrote that states are “merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating votes,” and that they must follow his presidential orders on elections.
That’s a lie, too.
The federal government cannot dictate how states conduct elections. Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution (the “Elections Clause”) gives control of elections to the states by saying “The times, places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof…”
Trump also wrote that voting machines “are a complete and total disaster” that “must end.”
Media outlets and individuals who have spread false claims about voting machines, like Trump did in this August 18 post, have faced extreme legal and financial penalties for doing so.
In April, 2023, Fox News settled a defamation lawsuit brought against it by Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, which sued Fox for $1.6 billion over damage Fox did to Dominion’s reputation and finances by broadcasting lies about the reliability of its voting machines. As the defamation trial started, Fox News agreed to settle the case and pay Dominion $787 million to avoid having to expose to the public how Fox News had promoted lies about the 2020 presidential election. Similarly, just a couple of days ago
Dominion settled yet another defamation lawsuit with right-wing news outlet Newsmax, which also broadcast lies about Dominion’s voting machines in the 2020 elections. Newsmax will pay Dominion $67 million to settle that suit.
Voting machines get tested regularly for accuracy, reliability and security. Every ballot cast also has a matching paper record that can be used to perform an accurate recount even in the event of errors or cyberattacks. Vote tabulating machines are also kept under very tight physical security, in locked rooms with restricted access and tamper-evident seals. Beyond this, election officials audit voting machines at every step in the election process to assure votes are recorded correctly, and county clerks maintain a chain of custody for ballots, so they would be alerted if voting machines were ever hacked.
In addition, penalties for trying to hack ballots and voting procedures are severe. Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, a registered Republican, was sentenced to nine years in prison for breaching county voting equipment, and more recently, two women (one a postal worker) who stole about a dozen mail-in ballots in Mesa County in 2024 and tried to illegally vote them to see if the County would catch them were arrested and charged with forgery, identity theft and attempting to influence a public servant. Machines at the County Clerk’s office caught the breach during signature verification. One of the women was a registered Republican and the other was an independent voter, so no Democrats were involved in the breach.
Trump’s post is so alarming and broadcasts an intent that is so blatantly illegal, that it may be just a way for him to continue to distract the American public from paying attention to the fact that Trump shared a close, 15+ year friendship with serial pedophile/registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice in pedophilia, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20 year sentence for facilitating Epstein’s pedophilia. It may also be a distraction from information that may be contained in the documents pertaining to the Epstein case. Trump’s name reportedly appears in the Epstein file documents multiple times, although in what context remains unknown to the public.
Elections seem so far away. The price of groceries…wow! And tires! It’s taken me a month to find a crew to re-stucco my home. My lawn man of 20 years can’t be found. Jeez!
Did I vote for THIS? My US Rep (Hurd) is afraid of 8/10 of his constituants.
Do I have to change to vote Dems.? Help!