Local political scientist talks about Trump's effort to get rid of mail-in voting

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- President Donald Trump has announced a new effort to do away with mail-in ballots.

He posted to Truth Social Monday, saying he will sign an executive order that gets rid of mail-in ballots and will 'help bring honesty' to the 2026 Midterm Election.

In Indiana, mail-in or absentee ballots are granted to voters that have a reason why they can't physically make it out to the polls on Election Day.

In Michigan, all registered voters have the right to vote by mail, with no reason needed.

Each state now has the choice of whether they actually want to change their voting processes, or not.

"The Constitution is quite clear that the power to administer these elections is left with the states," says Elizabeth Bennion, a Chancellor's Professor of Political Science at Indiana University South Bend.

It won't just be a stroke of President Donald Trump's pen that gets rid of mail-in ballots nationwide, but it's an effort he says in his post on Truth Social, will be strongly opposed by Democrats.

Experts like Bennion say the long-term data surrounding mail-in voting doesn't show an advantage towards a political party.

"We saw that Democrats were slightly, about 13 percentage points more likely than Republicans to vote by mail in 2024, about twice as likely in 2020, but we don't see any evidence that how they voted actually affected the overall outcome," explains Bennion.

She says about a third of voters nationwide cast their ballot through the mail in the 2024 election.

That boosted overall voter turnout by just about 2 percent.

"Some people believe that any reform that would increase voter turnout would necessarily benefit democrats, but that's not actually what the data shows us," Bennion says. "Does it increase turnout? Yes. Does it create a partisan advantage? We don't see any evidence of that despite good, rigorous, large-scale studies."

Bennion points to the local level as to where this change would be felt the most.

County clerks are working now to prepare for the 2026 elections.

The Saint Joseph County's Clerk Office just celebrated a 99 percent accuracy in their 2024 election audit this summer.

"This is a major issue for them to try to change state election laws to potentially have to staff more sites, to create more vote centers or polling places. They've sort of adjusted to their particular combination of mail-in versus in-person voting based on what voters have been doing," Bennion says.

Now, states will react.

In places like Indiana that are out of legislative session, they will have to decide whether they hold a special session and bring forth bills that change election laws, which costs money.

On the other hand, Michigan has a full-time legislature.

Even if states don't consider the abolishment of mail-in voting, experts say it sparks a conversation about the future of election processes.

"It will be interesting to see what happens," says Bennion. "The ask from the President is clear, but it's a big, big ask."

In that same Truth Social post, Trump also said he'd like to get rid of voting machines at polling centers.