Trump Attacks Mail in Voting to Avoid Losing

It's also just one part of a systemic effort by MAGA Republicans to suppress the vote and revive Jim Crow America

Donald Trump has announced that he will try to ban mail in voting for the 2026 midterm election. Never mind the hypocrisy of Trump himself voting via mail in ballot in 2020, or the fact that mail in ballot voting is incredibly secure with zero examples of election fraud. The broader reality is that this is just one part of a massive voter suppression effort by Trump and the MAGA movement to end free and fair elections in the United States. And unless we recognize this cancer for what it is, we risk losing our voting rights forever. Let’s Address This.

Mail in Voting Is Secure

As the Bipartisan Policy Center reports,

Mail voting, also referred to as absentee voting, has been in use since it helped soldiers cast ballots during the Civil War. Mail voting has been increasing in usage since the 1980s, with unprecedented expansions taking place since the COVID-19 pandemic. Mail voting is a safe, secure, and reliable voting method used by voters of all political parties.

This is not a controversial take, and we must not let Trump pretend he has a point. He does not. Instead, his attacks on mail in voting is but one part of a systemic MAGA approach to suppress the vote and return us to Jim Crow America. Here are the receipts.

The (Voter) Purge

What if I told you that since Donald Trump lost in 2020, more than 19 million Americans have been purged from the voter rolls? It’s true, it’s a problem that has increased in its severity over the last two decades, and right now it threatens to permanently undermine our democracy altogether. The Brennan Center for Justice reports:

According to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, over 19 million voters were removed from the rolls between 2020 and 2022. That is an increase of 21 percent compared with 2014–16, which was already an increase of 33 percent from the number of voters removed between 2006 and 2008.

For as much as Republicans scream about non-existent voter fraud, they are leading the charge on voter suppression.

A man holds a sign with “Voter Suppression” crossed out, while standing in front of the White House. Credit: AFJ.org

Voter suppression invites fascism

Republican states are leading the way in voter suppression via voter purges. And if we don’t work quickly to ensure comprehensive federal voting rights legislation, we will devolve into permanent fascism. This isn’t hyperbole. Let’s look at the facts.

In the swing state of Georgia, Republicans purged thousands of voters from the voter rolls for no reason and without explanation—all right before the 2024 election. You’ll recall how Donald Trump wanted to “find” some 12,000 votes? Republicans did the work for him for 2024.

Swing state Arizona was even worse last election cycle. Arizona’s voter purge was massive, with Republicans suing to remove at least 500,000 voters from voter rolls. Again, given that Biden won Arizona in 2020 by a mere 11,000 votes, purging half a million voters to reduce turnout may have been the difference between Arizona going blue in 2020, and red in the 2024 election.

And while I can cite numerous more examples of fascist voter purges, no one tops Texas. Texas purged or suspending a shocking 2.1 million voters, disproportionately low income and disproportionately Black and brown. In 2020 Trump won Texas by only 660,000 votes out of more than 11 million votes cast. Suspending 2.1 million votes was a concrete way to ensure Texas stayed red in 2024 and beyond. And given Abbott’s latest stunt to gut five blue Congressional districts and replace them with red MAGA districts, the voter suppression is more blatant than ever. This is why many voting rights activists have long said, and correctly said, that Texas is not a red state, it is a voter suppression state. The aforementioned facts prove this truth.

Voter suppression goes beyond voter purges

And it isn’t only banning mail in ballots or enacting voter purges. Republicans are employing a number of unethical, discriminatory, and downright racist strategies to suppress the vote. Strategies that mimic the poll taxes, grandfather clauses, and literacy tests of yesteryear. And due to the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act in Shelby v. Holder, these red states are able to get away with this modern day Jim Crow. A sample of these established Republican tactics to suppress the vote include:

• Requiring voter IDs even after voters provided an ID at the time of voter registration

• Banning only certain forms of voter IDs disproportionately used by Black or minority groups

• Accepting only certain forms of voter IDs disproportionately used by white or affluent voters

• Racial gerrymandering that disproportionately represents white voters over non-white voters

• Police target and charge Black people at higher rates, disenfranchising them

• Longer sentences for Black Americans, blocking them from more elections

• Prison gerrymandering, where Black incarcerated people are denied voting but counted for redistricting

• Requiring formerly incarcerated people to pay court fees before voting

• Requiring people to take off work and lose money just to vote

• Banning Sunday “Souls to the Polls” early voting, which targets Black voters

• “Running out” of voter registration or ballot forms

• Purging voters, requiring constant re-registration

• Refusing to accommodate non-English speaking voters

• Denying curbside voting for people with disabilities

• Denying absentee or mail in ballot voting, especially for the elderly, military, and indigent

• Requiring a home address, disenfranchising ~600K homeless Americans

• Partisan poll workers

• Inadequate or closed down polling locations on Native American lands

• Changing polling locations without proper advanced notice

• Limiting public transportation on Election Day

• Arbitrary or subjective signature verification requirements

I can go on but point is—none of the above is hypothetical. All of it is real and is happening as we speak. Each form of suppression chips away at access and has the potential to flip an election. Remember, it isn’t necessary to ban entire demographics of ‘undesirable’ voters—it is only necessary to ban enough, even 1-2%, to flip a close election.

Despite this suppression, BIPOC voters are still organizing and winning elections. But imagine what would happen if these barriers to free and fair voting were removed? America would change forever—and that’s what scares Republicans the most. As a side note, I find it ironic that the same people who scream "all lives matter" and "I don’t see color"—suddenly see color just fine while denying voting rights to non-white voters.

Conclusion

Donald Trump knows full well that when voting access increases, American citizens choose his opponents. This is the sole reason why he opposes voting rights—because it denies him power. But make no mistake, his plan to gut mail in voting is just one part of his fascist plan to transform the United States from an imperfect democratic republic into an absolute autocratic dictatorship.

We cannot let that happen.

As the late great John Lewis once said, "Democracy is not a state—it is an act." We cannot have a more perfect union built on justice unless we have equal voting rights. And until we elect leaders who reflect the diversity of the American experience, we prevent our own progress. That means rejecting Republican fascists who advance voter suppression laws. That also means rejecting Democratic politicians who take corporate and lobbyist funding from the same organizations propping up Republican fascists. This may be painful for some to hear, but you cannot stop fascism by excusing politicians funded by the same corporations and lobbyists who continue to reelect fascists, just because they’re blue politicians.

We must be in this for the long haul, and just must remain our standard no matter what. Despite our exhaustion, we must continue to act on the local, state, and federal level to protect voting rights and thus protect our republic.