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President Donald Trump in the Oval Office<\/span>Daniel Torok\/White House\/Zuma<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n On Monday morning,<\/span> President Trump returned to a longtime fixation, posting on<\/a> Truth Social that he was \u201cgoing to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS\u201d by \u201csigning an EXECUTIVE ORDER to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections.\u201d<\/p>\n The post came just after Trump\u2019s Friday summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2014not known for<\/a> his love of free and fair elections\u2014who allegedly counseled Trump that \u201cyour election was rigged because you have mail-in voting,\u201d a message Trump promptly relayed<\/a> to Fox News\u2019 Sean Hannity.<\/p>\n Trump already led a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots, helping to push for a spate of anti-voter<\/a> state laws both in the run-up<\/a> to the 2020 election and after his loss<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cEliminating this option\u00a0through an executive order would not only be unconstitutional,\u00a0it would add to the barriers many disabled voters already face, from inaccessible polling places to health risks,\u201d said Casey Doherty, a policy analyst for the Center for American Progress\u2019 Disability Justice Initiative. \u201cElected leaders should be expanding accessible voting options, not dismantling them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaking sure that people have access to be able to vote by mail is really critical,\u201d said Lisa Hassenstab, who leads Disability Rights Wisconsin\u2019s voting rights program, \u201cand to see it portrayed as a cause of fraud or anything like that\u2014there\u2019s no truth behind that.\u201d <\/p>\n Not that Hassenstab was surprised. \u201cThe rhetoric around this from the President has been pretty consistent,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s still disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n Barrett Nuzum, a power wheelchair user in Oklahoma, started voting by mail in 2019\u2014the state already requires him to have two witnesses present when he votes. Trump\u2019s plan to double down with an executive order, Nuzum says, \u201cdrives me up a wall.\u201d<\/p>\n Jen England, who lives in Pennsylvania, sits on the board of the myalgic encephalomyelitis<\/a> (ME) group #MEAction<\/a>: England\u2019s wife lives with severe ME and votes by mail. England is concerned that people with conditions like ME, frequently associated with Long Covid, won\u2019t be be able to qualify for exemptions when they need them.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople in the community who are bed-bound know that if they can\u2019t mail in a ballot, they\u2019re not voting,\u201d England. \u201cYou\u2019re basically depriving people of their citizenship rights.\u201d <\/p>\n An attack on mail ballots, of course, doesn\u2019t 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\u2019t stop the impending executive order, then any such voters, and disabled voters across the board, would likely vote in lower numbers. <\/p>\n \u201cAbsentee voting provides people with an option of how to have their voice heard, and we should make that as readily available as possible,\u201d said Eric Welsby, advocacy director of Detroit Disability Power. \u201cNot everyone can take an hour, half an hour or several hours off to go vote in person on Election Day.\u201d<\/p>\n Hassenstab expects any exemptions to be limited\u2014for example by requiring proof of disability, such as medical paperwork, which would also disproportionately lock out voters with less time, money, and job flexibility.<\/p>\n \u201cThere 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\u2019t,\u201d said Hassenstab.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cis really disenfranchising in terms of people\u2019s ability to participate on both sides of the aisle.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n