Politics

As ballots go out, Trump can’t make up his mind on early voting

Published

2 years ago

November 12, 2024

As ballots go out, Trump can’t make up his mind on early voting

Election Day is still six weeks away, but in some states, early voting is already underway. With this in mind, Donald Trump made clear during his latest rally in Pennsylvania that he’s simultaneously both for and against early voting and absentee ballots. NBC News reported:

“We got to get out and vote. You can start right away. You know that right now, we have this stupid stuff where you can vote 45 days early,” Trump said. He mused about “what the hell happens” during the period between the start of early voting and Election Day, claiming election fraudsters “move” votes from one candidate to another.

While those claims were demonstrably wrong, the Republican nevertheless went on to call the existing system “terrible,” even as he encouraged supporters to take advantage of the process he considers “stupid.”

The former president made no effort to address, or even acknowledge, the contradiction, which probably won’t help confused voters.

Even as Republican officials practically beg their party’s voters to take advantage of early voting, Trump can’t seem to make up his mind. Two weeks ago, for example, he condemned mail-in voting as “terrible.” Just three days earlier, however, Trump released a TikTok video encouraging his supporters to take advantage of early voting opportunities, including voting by mail.

That contradicted a related message he pushed a week earlierinsisting that mail-in voting should be abolished altogether. Around the same time, Trump called early voting “ridiculous.”

In July, the former president said Americans should not be “allowed” to vote early, adding that early voting is inherently riggedreality notwithstanding.

A month earlier, Trump endorsed early voting. At a campaign event on May 11, however, the former president condemned mail-in voting

Two days earlier, the Republican released a video online in which he specifically touted “absentee voting” and “early voting,” which was the opposite of what he told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly two weeks earlier.

Six days prior, Trump said the opposite, publishing a message to his online social media platform endorsing “absentee voting” and “early voting.”

As regular readers knowthese incoherent shifts have been ongoing for quite a while. After the 2022 midterm elections, for example, Trump wrote via social media, “YOU CAN NEVER HAVE FAIR & FREE ELECTIONS WITH MAIL-IN BALLOTS — NEVER, NEVER, NEVER.” (In case that was too subtle, one day later, the Republican re-published the missive, adding“NEVER!”)

For a while, it seemed party officials who had the former president’s ear managed to nudge him in a more sensible direction. In February 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported“After years of assailing early voting, Donald Trump is having a change of heart.” The article referenced a recent fundraising appeal Team Trump sent to donors, which said the Republicans’ path forward “is to MASTER the Democrats’ own game.”

A month later, the former president told attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference that it was time for Republicans to “change our thinking” on early and mail-in voting. In July 2023, Trump even filmed a videofor the Republican National Committee in support of the party’s early voting initiative.

And then he switched back to his other position.

“Mail-in voting is totally corrupt. Get that through your head,” Trump declared in February 2024, stepping all over his party’s message. “It has to be. The votes. I mean, it has to be.”

He’s since changed his mind — several times.

This is more than just a point of curiosity: The Republican base has absolutely no idea what to think about absentee balloting and voting by mail, and the former president’s followers apparently have no idea which of his competing messages to believe.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

Steve Benen

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an BLN political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

Politics

‘We are winning elections’: Bernie Sanders on Democrats’ progressive wing

Published

18 hours ago

September 6, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

‘We are winning elections’: Bernie Sanders on Democrats’ progressive wing

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Politics

Trump wants the Postal Service to radically overhaul mail voting. But ballots are already going out.

Published

2 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump’s controversial demands for the Postal Service to overhaul and monitor millions of mail ballots hit another snag on Friday, when North Carolina became the first state in the nation to start sending out ballots for the November election.

In March, Trump signed the initial executive order, which aimed to crack down on mail-in voting — which he regularly alleges without evidence is a vector for widespread voter fraud — and assert an unprecedented amount of federal control over the upcoming elections.

Under this order and the subsequent rule drafted by the U.S. Postal Service, the USPS would refuse to deliver ballots to states that failed to provide lists of eligible mail voters or did not adhere to an approved envelope design style.

Since then, the order has faced legal challenges, and it remains paused by a federal judge’s orders. But the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow the new rule to proceed — something current and former election officials from both parties say would be both a legal nightmare that oversteps the federal government’s traditional role in elections and a logistical one that is happening far too close to the November election to implement even if they agreed with it.

“Why the hell are you rocking the boat this late in the game?” said Stephen Richer, a former Republican recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, who has clashed with Trump allies for defending the security of the 2020 election.

Still, election officials are trying to project a sense of normalcy for voters, particularly in North Carolina, which serves as a test of whether established local election systems can operate normally amid intensifying federal scrutiny.

“I want to emphasize this point because there has been a lot of outside noise: Our county workers are ready,” Sam Hayes, a longtime Republican lawyer in the state and now executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said in a Thursday afternoon press conference.

He added, “All we can do is what we’re doing. … It is business as usual as far as I’m concerned.”

Despite the legal challenges, the Trump administration has continued to press the courts to let it proceed. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to lift an order from a Massachusetts judge which temporarily prevents the USPS from enforcing their rule. It is the second time the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to step in, after winning an earlier victory in which the high court dismissed an earlier hold on the rule as premature.

“The uncertainty is coming from a single activist judge who continues to try and obstruct President Trump from implementing commonsense measures to protect the security of mail-in ballots and ensure only Americans vote in American elections,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement. “These safeguards for mail ballots were proposed months ago giving election officials ample time to prepare for the 2026 election.”

The USPS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Election officials said that if the rule goes into effect this close to November, it would cause chaos and place added strain on the USPS and election officials. And an anonymous federal whistleblower said in a report circulated earlier this week by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) that the USPS was moving forward in a “secretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed process” to try to implement the new system ahead of the midterms.

In the coming weeks, states across the country will follow North Carolina’s lead. Nine other states will begin mailing ballots in the next two weeks, according to a tracker from the National Conference of State Legislatures — with the biggest day for mailing coming 45 days before the election in mid-September.

“It would be so outrageous to try to let this go into effect. It’s hard to even imagine,” said Ben Hovland, a senior fellow for democracy at the progressive think tank Center for American Progress and former Democratic commissioner with the Election Assistance Commission who was fired by Trump in July.

He added, “It would be a break-glass moment for our democracy.”

The rule would require meticulous changes to ballot handling and tracking practices that Hovland said are impossible to implement before Election Day in about two months, effectively disenfranchising millions of voters.

“Ballots are printed. Envelopes are printed. You can go on and on with all the practical reasons that show that implementing something like this at this time is not feasible,” he said.

Richer said he doubted the new rules would bring about more security. Even if the USPS received lists from the states, according to the postal service’s final rule, it would not do any additional vetting of the list, Richer said.

“It’s just that the mail ballots have to be on that list, and I don’t see what added value for election integrity that does,” he said.

He added, “It creates a lot of administrative burden, and I think it creates a lot more opportunity for error.”

While a decision looms in the courts, election officials and experts cast doubt on the likelihood of the rules going into effect before November. A more pressing issue, they said, is the confusion and uncertainty surrounding mail-in ballots, which could subvert and change the behaviors of voters.

“It makes things seem messy or difficult, and it can dissuade people from participating or coming out to vote,” Hovland said. “It certainly also helps establish a pretext to make bad faith claims about election results.”

Hovland said that while none of these claims of voter fraud are backed up with facts, they could cause Americans to lose faith in the voting process.

Still, some current officials contended they were well-prepared for whatever happens — and that they’d be able to communicate effectively with voters who have become increasingly buffeted by dramatic rhetoric about the once-unmentioned nuts and bolts of actually running an election.

“There’s always a lot of noise around elections, that’s not going to change, and it can be hard to differentiate that from what’s actually going on on the ground,” said Jason Tyson, director of external affairs for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

As Election Day approaches, Tyson and election officials said they urge voters to check their registration status and make a plan to vote.

He added, “I think we’ve got a really well-trained, solid staff who are ready, and who have gone through all of the checks and balances and points of contact that we need to do to get to where we are.”

Politics

Missouri Supreme Court pauses GOP gerrymander, likely netting Democrats 1 House seat

Published

3 days ago

September 3, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Missouri’s Supreme Court suspended a congressional map that state Republicans drew last year that would have netted the GOP an additional House seat, likely keeping the seat in Democratic hands this November.

The court ruled unanimously on Thursday that a referendum petition organized by Democrats to put the new congressional maps to a vote was incorrectly deemed insufficient by Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, and ordered that the gerrymandered map be put to a vote in the fall.

Voters will ultimately decide the fate of the new lines in November. But in the meantime, it cannot be in place for the midterms, meaning Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s original Kansas City-based district will likely stay in Democrats’ hands this fall.