President Donald Trump is trying to ban mail-in voting, but Gov. Josh Shapiro says that won’t happen in Pennsylvania.
Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro defiantly criticized President Donald Trump’s announcement that he is preparing to sign an executive order banning mail-in voting prior to the 2026 midterm elections.
“ Donald Trump can sign whatever the hell executive orders he wants to sign and make a show out of whatever he wants, but he can’t change the Constitution with an executive order and the Constitution gives the authority to set our election rules to the states,” Shapiro told reporters at a press conference in Harrisburg on Tuesday. “It will have absolutely no bearing on our elections here in Pennsylvania.”
Trump, alongside the Republican Party, has been spreading false information about mail-in voting fraud and insecurity since he lost the 2020 election, and that misinformation played a vital role in sparking the Jan. 6th, 2021 attack on the US capitol in Washington, DC.
“ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING, and everybody, IN PARTICULAR THE DEMOCRATS, KNOWS THIS,” he wrote on Truth Social. “I, AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, WILL FIGHT LIKE HELL TO BRING HONESTY AND INTEGRITY BACK TO OUR ELECTIONS.
Trump’s renewed attacks on the system comes days after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He told Fox News host Sean Hannity that Putin said, “Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting” after the two met in Alaska on Friday.
The Shapiro administration has worked tirelessly over the past several years to make mail-in voting more accessible for Pennsylvania voters.
Two years ago, the Pennsylvania Department of State redesigned the state’s mail-in ballots to make it easier to vote and reduce mistakes and errors from voters returning their ballots. Earlier this year, the administration announced a 57% decrease in rejected mail-in ballots from the 2024 presidential election.
”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. “People will be able to vote by mail or people will be able to vote in person.”
