American elections are back in the spotlight thanks to President Donald Trump’s resurgent interest in the issue. Somewhere in between efforts to broker peace in Eastern Europe and swatting away intense criticism for using federal troops to purge crime in the nation’s capital, the president recently announced he is embarking on a mission to eliminate mail-in voting and electronic voting machines.
The president published a long Truth Social post on Monday indicating the major reason this issue has reemerged is to prevent cheating in the 2026 midterm elections. He said he intended to sign an executive order related to the issue soon. Trump said in his post:
I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we’re at it, Highly “Inaccurate,” Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES, which cost Ten Times more than accurate and sophisticated Watermark Paper, which is faster, and leaves NO DOUBT, at the end of the evening, as to who WON, and who LOST, the Election. We are now the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting. All others gave it up because of the MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD ENCOUNTERED. WE WILL BEGIN THIS EFFORT, WHICH WILL BE STRONGLY OPPOSED BY THE DEMOCRATS BECAUSE THEY CHEAT AT LEVELS NEVER SEEN BEFORE, by signing an EXECUTIVE ORDER to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections.
A reporter asked the president about his reignited interest in election security during Monday’s White House press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The president was happy to take a topic detour and go off on a tangent about mail-in ballot corruption. “We’re going to end mail-in voting. It’s a fraud,” he said. “Mail-in ballots are corrupt.” Republicans will do everything possible to get rid of mail-in ballots, the president said, adding that it’s the only reason Democrats ever win elections.
Putin’s Flattery
Trump recently told Fox News commentator Sean Hannity that Russian head of state Vladimir Putin told him during their Alaska meeting that he beleives Trump lost in 2020 because of mail-in voting. Putin claimed that Trump won the 2020 election “by so much,” according to Trump. Putin piled on the flattery, saying that there would be no war in Ukraine had Trump won.
Putin has reason to flatter the most influential head of state in the world. Among them is that Trump commands the most powerful and sophisticated military in the history of the world. If the neocons and certain European heads of state had their way, there is reason to suspect U.S. troops would have been deployed on the ground in Ukraine long ago. But despite Putin’s obvious strategic interest in cozying up to Trump, the facts suggest the Russian autocrat might be right. Putin invaded countries when George W. Bush was president (Georgia), when Barack Obama was president (Ukraine; Crimea was annexed), when Joe Biden was president (Ukraine) — but not when Trump was president. Those are the facts.
According to this line of logic, it’s not just Americans who stand to benefit from secure U.S elections, but the world.
Fraud Problem
Election fraud happens regularly. This magazine has documented at length the degree of corruption that has tainted American elections. The issue rose to a new level after the 2020 election, when Covid-19 resulted in more people voting by mail and before Election Day than any other way. An April 29, 2021 government report said:
In the 2020 election, 69% of voters nationwide cast their ballot nontraditionally — by mail and/or before Election Day. This is the highest rate of nontraditional voting for a presidential election since questions regarding voting method have been included in the survey. By comparison, about 40% of voters cast their ballots by mail and/or prior to Election Day in 2016. Much of the surge in nontraditional voting was due to an increase in mail-in voting.
Many people have been convicted of election fraud tied to their use of mail-in ballots. In 2022, Abdihakim A. Essa, a noncitizen living in Minneapolis, was convicted of four counts of felony offenses after being accused of signing fraudulent absentee ballots. Bradley Haugen, also of Minnesota, was convicted in 2022 of a felony offense for lying on an absentee ballot. Elizabeth Gale of California was accused of four felony counts of voter fraud. According to reporting by Heritage:
Gale of San Diego was charged by the state with four felony counts of fraudulently casting a vote, impersonating a voter, attempting to vote as a fictious person, and personate with a written instrument after casting an absentee ballot on behalf of her deceased mother during the 2021 California Gubernatorial Recall Election. After absentee ballots were sent to all registered Madera County voters, Gale filled out the ballot, forged her mother’s signature, and falsely swore as a witness to her mother signing the ballot.
There are hundreds of recent voting convictions just within the last few years, and many of them involve absentee ballots. You can learn more about that here.
Securing Elections
Eliminating mail-in voting and electronic machines would significantly help secure American elections. Trump’s claims of corruption and fraud in the 2020 elections are bolstered by some of the top researchers on the issue. Among them is David Clements, a former New Mexico state prosecutor and university professor-turned-election reformer. We spoke to Clements during the early part of 2024, after he had released a documentary on the issue titled “Let My People Go.” Clements explained how machines and mail-in ballots compliment each other when it comes to election cheating. He said:
The machines and the rigged software optimize the environment for ballot stuffing. Ballot stuffing tells you what the delta is that you need to inject your ballots into. The machines actually inform the ballot stuffing. You should never separate the two. They’ve got to be combined.
Deep State Corruption
Another election crusader who has incurred serious consequences for his role in exposing evidence of fraud during the 2020 election is former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman. The legislature hired the former justice to investigate the Dairy State’s 2020 election. After he published two reports documenting a series of irregularities, the legislature put the kibosh on the probe. Gableman believed that “all sorts of improprieties” occurred in 2020 and that the election was “rigged.” During our interview with Gableman, he explained how a George Soros-funded activist named Michael Spitzer Rubenstein hijacked control of the election counting in Green Bay. Gableman:
He secured large ballrooms for the storage of completed ballots, and in the contract it’s expressly stated that Spitzer Rubenstein will be the person to be given all four keys to the ballroom. And then nobody is to be allowed into that ballroom unless Spitzer Rubenstein approves of it. Spitzer Rubenstein further negotiated in the contract with the Hyatt the presence of several Wi-Fi systems, and one of them was a hidden Wi-Fi that ran up to his hotel suite. And he had access to that hidden Wi-Fi because that is where the central processing of the ballots took place on election night.
Gableman’s testimony about what he saw in Wisconsin, which was likely a model for several other swing states, is startling. He has since had his law license suspended. You can read the former Justice’s testimony here.
Expensive Settlements
As Trump vows to ramp up pressure for election reform, right-wing news outlet Newsmax has reached a $67 million settlement with voting machine maker Dominion Voting Systems. Dominion accused the outlet of defamation for giving air time to people who claimed voting machines contributed to voter fraud.
In an article posted on its website, Newsmax defends its decision to settle. The news organization claims it wasn’t based on guilt, but bias in the court. Newsmax:
Despite its confidence in its reporting, Newsmax determined the Delaware court with Judge Eric Davis presiding would not provide a fair trial wherein the company could present standard libel defenses to a jury. Davis also presided over the case of Dominion v. Fox News where he was harshly criticized by then Fox’s chief legal officer for his actions and rulings. ‘From the very beginning, Judge Davis ruled in ways that strongly favored the plaintiffs and limited Newsmax’s ability to defend itself,’ Newsmax stated.
Secure elections are necessary to a nation of free citizens. Without them, the people don’t have representation. Abolishing mail-in voting and voting machines are two of several steps necessary to accomplishing this. However, we oppose federal involvement in election regulations. Elections can and should be secured at the state level. There are several other reforms Americans need to push for if they truly seek to fair American elections. We point the reader to our February 15, 2021 print issue, “Restoring Election Integrity,” for a better understanding of this critical issue.
