Maddow blog-Trump eyes yet another power grab, takes aim at voting machines and mail-in ballots
The president’s sweeping executive order on elections lost in the courts, but his latest threats make clear that his radical ambitions haven’t changed.
It’s easy to shrug when Trump talks about leading “a movement†against mail-in ballots and voting machines.
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-08-18T16:03:24.048Z
But when he starts talking about imposing his version of “honesty†on the 2026 midterms, alarm bells start going off. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-eyes-yet-another-power-grab-takes-aim-voting-machines-mail-ballo-rcna225602
He’s apparently not giving up. NBC News reported:
Trump said in a post to Truth Social that he would sign an executive order to try to get rid of mail-in ballots and voting machines, a move that would almost certainly face immediate challenges in court. The president said in the post that he was ‘going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS’ and voting machines.
The 288-word online tantrum — complete with six exclamation points, a robust number of sentences written with the caps lock on and the word “woke” — was remarkable in its inanity.
Trump claimed that no other country on the planet “uses Mail-In Voting,” which isn’t even close to being true. He similarly accused Democrats of cheating in elections, which also isn’t true......
And now Trump is eyeing another presidential directive to ensure his version of “honesty” is applied to next year’s elections.
Journalist and historian Garrett Graff noted in response to the latest online rant from the White House, “This is step one in how we lose free and fair elections. It’s not that Trump will ‘cancel’ the midterms. It’s just everyone has to vote in person, and urban downtowns will be filled with ICE checkpoints and intimidating National Guard troops to ‘double check’ that only citizens vote.”
= new reply since forum marked as read
Back in 2011, the Texas GOP passed a voter id law that was later largely gutted in court. Part of that voter id law excluded vote by mail ballots from the voter id requirements because at the time, the GOP was relying on vote by mail for voter turnout. The GOP base is older than the Democratic base and tended to vote by mail more that Democrats. In 2010, the GOP had 4 times the number of voters who voted early in the GOP primary compared to Democratic voters. The Democratic Party started to push vote by mail for our eligible voters who may not have had the proper id. Here is a post about the push by the Texas Democratic Party on vote by mail https://www.democraticunderground.com/107814375
Over the years, the Texas Democrats have narrowed the gap in vote by mail ballots. Now trump thinks that Democrats are using vote by mail more that republicans and that appears to be true in some states.
I note that trump has encouraged vote by mail and has voted by mail
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