Trump says Voter ID must be part of every single vote amid plans to ban mail-in ballots

Trump on Saturday reiterated his intentions of banning mail-in ballots except for a few exceptions. The president said “Also, No Mail-In Voting, Except For Those That Are Very Ill, And The Far Away Military.” Trump suggested using “paper ballot only” in his post on Saturday.

Trump has long questioned the US electoral system and falsely claimed that the 2020 US presidential election was rigged and the result, wherein he was defeated by Democratic President Joe Biden, had widespread fraud. Trump and his Republican allies raised objections over widespread voting by non-citizens, without providing any evidence.

Trump, for several years, has called for ending the usage of electronic voting machines (EVM) and has pushed to use paper ballots and hand counts. But election officials have said that it is a time-consuming, costly and far less accurate process than machine counting.

While the US president intends to bring an executive order and make changes to the electoral process, it is worth noting that federal elections are administered at the state level in America and it remains unclear whether the president has the constitutional power to enact such changes.

The mid-term election, scheduled for November 3, 2026, would be a nationwide referendum on Trump’s domestic and foreign policies since he returned to the White House for his second tenure in January this year.