Trump Calls for Return to Paper Ballots, Ending Mail-In Voting

Former President Donald Trump gets ready to speak during a Save America rally in Warren, Mich., on Oct. 1, 2022. Emily Elconin/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump this week called for the United States to return to using paper ballots and again called for an end to mail-in balloting.

“We shouldn’t have mail-in ballots, unless somebody’s very, very sick or it’s military far away,” Trump told Just the News in an interview, noting that lengthy delays for a week or more in counting those ballots have eroded voters’ confidence in election systems.

“We should go to paper ballots, like they did in France. Thirty-six million people [voted] and they had no disputes. Everyone had paper ballots, and it was one-day voting. They didn’t store them over there in the corner, and you see the boxes moving all over the place,” Trump said.

Government should adopt “one-day voting” and “should go to paper ballots,” Trump said. “And you would have elections that everybody could be proud of. Because right now, this country is a laughingstock all over the world. They’re laughing at our stupid elections.”

Following the 2020 presidential election, Trump frequently criticized how long it took states to count and certify votes. He’s also often stated that mail-in ballots can be easily tampered with and has said the 2020 election was marred by mail-in ballot fraud.

Lawsuits

Since that election, a number of lawsuits have been filed to toss mail-in ballot provisions in several states. Several months ago, Republicans challenged a 2019 law that largely expanded mail-in voting in Pennsylvania, while a Delaware state court separately blocked voting by mail in that state on Sept. 14 following a lawsuit.

A judge in June, meanwhile, rejected a Republican challenge to Arizona’s mail-in voting provision, which was set up in 1991.

This week, North Carolina’s State Board of Elections directed county election officials not to engage in signature matching when reviewing absentee ballot envelopes this fall after a judge rejected the GOP appeal of a state board ruling prohibiting the practice.

An election worker opens envelopes containing vote-by-mail ballots for the Aug. 4 Washington state primary at King County Elections in Renton, Washington on Aug. 3, 2020. Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images

The North Carolina Republican Party had filed motions in Wake County Superior Court last week, asking the court to block the state board from enforcing its declaratory ruling that prevented county election officials from comparing signatures on absentee ballot request forms and return envelopes with the signatures included in voter registration records.

The GOP-controlled Texas legislature last year passed a measure to overhaul the state’s elections, including making it a felony to provide voters with a vote-by-mail application if they hadn’t already requested one.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.