Trump vows to abolish mail-in voting before the 2026 midterm elections. Is Florida going to be affected?
Gov. Ron DeSantis this week dismissed concerns Florida's voting process would be affected by President Donald Trump's push to abolish mail-in voting before the 2026 midterm elections.
DeSantis said from his talks with Trump, the president is more concerned with vote-by-mail rules used in states without "adequate safeguards," such as California and Nevada.
"Basically, they have a voting list which is not accurate and not cut up to speed, and then they dump all these ballots out there," DeSantis said Tuesday during an appearance in St. Cloud.
How does Florida conduct mail-in voting compared to other states?
California and Nevada automatically send mail ballots to every registered voter, as do Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington.
Florida requires voters to request mail ballots from county elections supervisors and is one of 28 states with "no-excuse absentee voting."
Mail-in voting has become a highly debated issue
Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried said in an email that the Republican goal is to "lock in" control ahead of the 2026 midterm election.
"Instead of addressing Florida's affordability crisis or doing anything to help working families, DeSantis is focused on consolidating power and silencing voters to protect Trump and keep Republicans in power," Fried said.
In a social media post, Trump announced he was "going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we're at it, Highly 'Inaccurate,' Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES."
Mail-in voting numbers in the 2024 election
In Florida, of the 11,004,209 votes cast in the 2024 general election, 3,029,152, or 27.5 percent, were through the vote-by-mail process, according to figures on the state Division of Elections website.
California and Arizona had 83 and 84 percent of their voters, respectively, vote by mail in the last election.