Trump’s push to end mail voting will have ‘no bearing’ on Pa. elections, Shapiro says
The governor said a potential executive order would “have absolutely no bearing” on elections in the state.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Tuesday any executive order from President Donald Trump banning mail ballots will have no impact on elections in the state.
The governor’s comments came a day after Trump announced plans to ban mail voting, a move Shapiro said would be unconstitutional.
“Donald Trump can sign whatever executive order he wants. It will have absolutely no bearing on our elections here in Pennsylvania, and we will once again have free and fair, safe and secure elections led by Republican and Democratic clerks of elections in each of our 67 counties,” Shapiro said at an unrelated news conference Tuesday.
“People will be able to vote by mail, or people will be able to vote in person.”
During a Monday event with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump said his attorneys were writing an executive order to “end mail-in ballots because they’re corrupt.”
Trump has no power to unilaterally end mail-in voting. Any executive order is likely to face immediate legal challenges, as the Constitution gives states the power to set rules for elections and only allows Congress to alter those rules.
There is no evidence of widespread fraud or corruption in the use of mail ballots, but Trump has long sought to sow doubt in election security with false claims about mail voting, and Philadelphia is often at the center of his complaints.
Pennsylvania enacted mail voting in 2019, and it saw huge usage during the 2020 election due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump narrowly lost the state after discouraging his supporters from using mail voting, while Democrats voted by mail in large numbers.
Despite Trump’s antipathy to the method, increased use of mail voting by Republicans in 2024 was a driving factor in Trump’s Pennsylvania win.
Republican activists had hoped to build upon that success in next year’s midterms, but Trump’s latest wave of attacks could harm those efforts heading into 2026, when the governorship will be on the ballot.
Trump previewed his potential executive order on mail voting as the U.S. Department of Justice has sought unredacted voter registration records from more than a dozen states, including Pennsylvania.
“For him to try and put more misinformation out there, to stoke more division and fear amongst people who want to exercise their constitutional right to pick the leaders in their communities and in their commonwealth, that is just cynical and wrong,” Shapiro said.
Staff writer Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this article.