Trump’s promise to end vote-by-mail is yet another attack on disabled voters

On Monday morning, President Trump returned to a longtime fixation, posting on Truth Social that he was “going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS” by “signing an EXECUTIVE ORDER to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections.”

The post came just after Trump’s Friday summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin—not known for his love of free and fair elections—who allegedly counseled Trump that “your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting,” a message Trump promptly relayed to Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

Trump already led a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots, helping to push for a spate of anti-voter state laws both in the run-up to the 2020 election and after his loss. But each successive crackdown strips voting rights from disabled and aging voters, who disproportionately rely on absentee ballots and voter assistance laws to participate in democracy.

Some experts question whether the White House even has the power to take further steps to ban voting by mail; a plethora of lawsuits would likely follow any executive order against it.

“Eliminating this option through an executive order would not only be unconstitutional, it would add to the barriers many disabled voters already face, from inaccessible polling places to health risks,” said Casey Doherty, a policy analyst for the Center for American Progress’ Disability Justice Initiative. “Elected leaders should be expanding accessible voting options, not dismantling them.”

“Making sure that people have access to be able to vote by mail is really critical,” said Lisa Hassenstab, who leads Disability Rights Wisconsin’s voting rights program, “and to see it portrayed as a cause of fraud or anything like that—there’s no truth behind that.”

Not that Hassenstab was surprised. “The rhetoric around this from the President has been pretty consistent,” she said. “It’s still disappointing.”

Barrett Nuzum, a power wheelchair user in Oklahoma, started voting by mail in 2019—the state already requires him to have two witnesses present when he votes. Trump’s plan to double down with an executive order, Nuzum says, “drives me up a wall.”

Jen England, who lives in Pennsylvania, sits on the board of the myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) group #MEAction: England’s wife lives with severe ME and votes by mail. England is concerned that people with conditions like ME, frequently associated with Long Covid, won’t be be able to qualify for exemptions when they need them.

“People in the community who are bed-bound know that if they can’t mail in a ballot, they’re not voting,” England. “You’re basically depriving people of their citizenship rights.”

An attack on mail ballots, of course, doesn’t just impact disabled people. Many people benefit from mail-in voting: people who are unable to get time off work to vote, those who live in areas with long lines and waits at the polls, and full-time caregivers who may not be able to find or afford someone else to take care of their loved one. If a lawsuit doesn’t stop the impending executive order, then any such voters, and disabled voters across the board, would likely vote in lower numbers.

“Absentee voting provides people with an option of how to have their voice heard, and we should make that as readily available as possible,” said Eric Welsby, advocacy director of Detroit Disability Power. “Not everyone can take an hour, half an hour or several hours off to go vote in person on Election Day.”

Hassenstab expects any exemptions to be limited—for example by requiring proof of disability, such as medical paperwork, which would also disproportionately lock out voters with less time, money, and job flexibility.

“There are so many complicating factors for people in terms of things like transportation or maybe a chronic condition, which would mean that sometimes they are able to get to the polls and sometimes they aren’t,” said Hassenstab.

Disabled people have the same range of political viewpoints as any other group of voters, Hassenstab said, and an executive order on against mail-in ballots “is really disenfranchising in terms of people’s ability to participate on both sides of the aisle.”