Almost a third of American voters — both Republicans and Democrats — cast ballots by mail in 2024, according to the States United Democracy Center.
President Trump often votes by mail, including just a few weeks ago for Florida’s Republican primary.
And yet Trump and other Republicans have for years promoted falsehoods about the security of U.S. elections, arguing that voting by mail has led to rampant fraud and “cheating.”
Though it hardly bears repeating, mail-voting fraud is exceedingly rare.
Such cases account for 0.000043% of total mail ballots cast, according to the Brookings Institution. This amounts to roughly four cases out of every 10 million votes.
Of the more than 16 million votes cast by Californians during the 2024 general election, more than 13 million, or nearly 81%, were cast by mail, including voters across the political spectrum.
Very soon mail ballots will again be sent to Central Coast voters for this November’s election.
In this regard, Santa Barbara County says: “Voting by mail is safe, secure and easy!” The county instructs voters to seal their ballots inside the return envelope and sign and date them so elections officials can compare the signature with the one on file.
The U.S. Constitution’s Elections Clause, in Article I, Section 4, gives states authority over the “Times, Places and Manner” of congressional elections, while allowing Congress to make or alter those rules. It does not give the president comparable authority to set election procedures.
And yet the Trump administration has sought what a federal appeals court in July called “unprecedented levels of involvement by federal officials in how states administer elections.”
As we approach the Nov. 3, 2026, midterm elections, Trump has been hard at work trying to restrict mail voting through a series of executive actions. One 2025 executive order sought to prevent mail ballots from being counted if they arrived after Election Day, even if they were postmarked by Election Day. Currently, 15 states allow such ballots.
In June, the Supreme Court ruled that federal Election Day laws do not prevent states from counting ballots postmarked by Election Day but received afterward under state law.
A win for voting rights, for now.
A separate executive order, issued March 31, directed the Department of Homeland Security to create state-by-state lists of confirmed U.S. citizens and directed the U.S. Postal Service to begin rulemaking governing mail ballots. The Postal Service subsequently adopted a final rule requiring states using the mail for federal ballots to provide voter information and comply with specified ballot-envelope and barcode requirements.
Federal courts initially blocked key provisions of the March order but on Aug. 24, the Supreme Court handed President Trump a procedural win, voting 6-3 to stay one of those injunctions. The court did not, however, rule that the executive order was constitutional. The majority concluded that the states’ challenge at that stage was blocked by questions of standing.
The legal fight has continued. After the Postal Service issued its final rule, states challenged the restrictions again, and on Sept. 4 a federal judge again blocked their enforcement. On Sept. 6, the administration returned to the Supreme Court seeking to put the rule into effect while the litigation continues.
This back-and-forth means there is little time for election officials to make major changes to procedures that are already being put in place for November.
Despite the continuing litigation, Santa Barbara Clerk-Recorder Joe Holland said the elections office will not be doing anything different in November and that mail-in voting will begin in early October.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta strongly condemned Trump’s actions involving voting by mail.
“SCOTUS opened the door for the Trump Administration to try to make it harder for Americans to vote. But today’s decision was not a ruling on the merits, and this fight is far from over,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta shared Monday. “As I have said from the beginning, the U.S. Constitution gives the President no authority over how states administer their elections. We will continue to use every legal tool at our disposal to fight back against unlawful federal overreach whenever it occurs.”
This is a five-alarm fire in the fight to save our democracy. All South Coast mayors and city council members, county supervisors and U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal need to give full-throated support for the Constitution and mail-in ballots, while condemning Trump’s attempt to usurp our democracy.
So, if you get a ballot in the mail, quickly fill it out and submit it.
The mail must get through.
