Trump says lawyers are drafting executive order to end mail-in voting | Announcement comes days after Putin allegedly told Trump US elections were rigged because of postal ballots

Donald Trump on Monday announced that lawyers are drafting an executive order to eliminate mail-in voting, days after Vladimir Putin told him US elections were rigged because of postal ballots.

In a White House meeting alongside Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump said: “We’re going to start with an executive order that’s being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail in ballots because they’re corrupt.”

The push follows Trump’s meeting with Putin in Alaska on 15 August, when the Russian president allegedly told him that the 2020 election “was rigged because you have mail-in voting”, according to Trump’s subsequent interview with Sean Hannity.

Trump falsely claimed that late former president Jimmy Carter opposed mail-in voting, saying: “Even Jimmy Carter with this commission, they set it up. He said, the one thing about mail in voting, you will never have an honest election if you have mail in it.”

In reality, Carter urged the opposite during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, with the Carter Center arguing that the best way to tackle potential voter fraud in a vote-by-mail situation is to strengthen safeguards and expand voting access.

“I urge political leaders across the country to take immediate steps to expand vote-by-mail and other measures that can help protect the core of American democracy – the right of our citizens to vote,” Carter said in a statement.

Trump started off his Monday morning by making a lengthy Truth Socialpost, in which he said: “I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS,” while also targeting “Highly ‘Inaccurate,’ Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES” which he claimed cost “Ten Times more than accurate and sophisticated Watermark Paper”.

In that post, Trump falsely asserted that the US was “now the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting” and claimed “All others gave it up because of the MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD ENCOUNTERED.”

Data from International Idea contradicts this claim, showing that 34 countries worldwide allow mail-in voting, with 12 allowing it for all voters and 22 for some voters. Most European countries offer some form of mail voting, and more than 100 countries let their citizens vote by mail when living abroad.

US courts rejected numerous fraud allegations after the 2020 presidential election, finding no evidence of widespread irregularities.

This cannot be emphasized enough, mail in voting is not corrupt and it does not lead to rigged elections. This story is littered with Trump’s ‘pants on fire’ lies.

Eliminating mail-in voting is a direct attack on democracy and will lead to the largest voter suppression in American history. The alarm bells should be going off across the country and loudly.

Trump got advice on rigging the elections from Putin, who has been doing the same for over a decade.

Trump may not have the authority to do this but states controlled by Republicans can do it on his orders. That makes this a real and substantial threat.