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Tag: mail-in ballot

  • Some Tarrant voters may need a new mail-in ballot application for primaries. Why?

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    A woman in a grey sweater fills out a form while seated at a table. She is wearing a name tag that says "Visitor" on it.

    Tarrant County resident Janet Jones fills out a mock mail-in ballot at the public test of the county’s elections on Sept. 16, 2024.


    CODY COPELAND

    ccopeland@star-telegram.com

    More than a thousand Tarrant County voters who have requested a mail-in ballot may still need to submit a new application ahead of the March primaries.

    A mail-in ballot application sent by the Texas Democratic Party was missing information related to the March 3 primary elections, Tarrant County Democratic Party chair Allison Campolo said in a Friday text message.

    The forms are acceptable for every election this year, including Saturday’s runoff, except for the primaries, where voters must select which party’s primary they want to vote in, said Campolo and Tarrant County Election Administrator Clint Ludwig.

    “The application had everything but a box for the primaries to select what party you wanted,” Ludwig said.

    The state party said the mailers were specific to the runoff election, and that an additional mailer has been sent to voters with a primary ballot application.

    Campolo called the issue “very serious” and said Tarrant County Elections is notifying voters out of courtesy, rather than not sending the voters a primary ballot, and allowing them to submit an application for the primary if desired. Ludwig said the affected voters are being sent a letter and new application from the county.

    Campolo and Ludwig estimated that more than 1,000 voters in the county have been affected. The Texas Democratic Party said it sent out 30,000 mailers to elgible mail-in voters living in Senate District 9.

    “Our Vote by Mail program in Tarrant County was specifically targeted at the SD9 special election runoff,” said Terri Burke, the executive director of the Texas Democratic Party in a Saturday statement. “Those voters received mail-in ballot applications for today’s runoff and all other elections this year except for the primary. An additional mailing has been sent to individuals who require primary ballot applications.”

    Asked about the party’s statement, Campolo said in a Saturday text that she’s “grateful to the state party for sending these vote by mail applications to our voters.

    “The barrage of elections this year combined with Texas election laws has made this inherently confusing for voters no matter what the applications looked like or included,” Campollo continued. “This will be a tremendous year of voter education and outreach to make sure that all voters have the information they need at every election.”

    Eleanor Dearman

    Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    Eleanor (Elly) Dearman is a Texas politics and government reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She’s based in Austin, covering the Legislature and its impact on North Texas. She grew up in Denton and has been a reporter for more than six years.
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    Eleanor Dearman

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  • Trump, contradicting the California GOP, opposes early and mail-in voting in Prop. 50 election

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    President Trump urged California voters on Sunday not to cast mail-in ballots or vote early in the California election about redistricting — the direct opposite of the message from state GOP leaders.

    Repeating his false claim that former President Biden beat him in 2020 because the election was rigged, Trump argued that the November special election about redistricting in California would be rigged, as would the 2026 midterm election to determine control of Congress.

    “No mail-in or ‘Early’ Voting, Yes to Voter ID! Watch how totally dishonest the California Prop Vote is! Millions of Ballots being ‘shipped,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “GET SMART REPUBLICANS, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!!”

    Proposition 50, a ballot measure proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other California Democrats to redraw the state’s congressional districts to boost their party’s ranks in the U.S. House of Representatives, is on the Nov. 4 ballot.

    The rare mid-decade redistricting effort was in response to Trump urging GOP-led states, initially Texas, to increase the number of Republicans in the House in the 2026 midterm election to allow him to continue implementing his agenda in his final two years in the White House.

    Newsom responded to Trump on X: “Ramblings of an old man that knows he’s going to LOSE.”

    Trump has not weighed in on the merits of Proposition 50, while prominent Democrats who support it have, including former President Obama.

    More than 4 million mail-in ballots — 18% of the ballots sent to California’s 23 million voters — had been returned as of Friday, according to a vote tracker run by Democratic redistricting expert Paul Mitchell, who drew the proposed maps on the ballot. Democrats continue to outpace Republicans in returning ballots, 51% to 28%. Voters registered without a party preference or with other political parties have returned 21% of the ballots.

    Early-voting centers also opened in 29 counties on Saturday.

    Turnout figures were alarming Republicans leaders before Trump’s message.

    “It’s simple. Republicans need to stop complaining and vote. We ask and ask and ask and yet turnout still lags,” the San Diego GOP posted on X. “To win this one GOP turnout needs to be materially better than average. It’s very doable but won’t just happen. Work it.”

    Republicans historically voted early while Democrats were more likely to cast ballots on election day. Trump upended this dynamic, creating dissonance with GOP leaders across the nation who recognized the value of banking early votes. And it completely contradicts the messaging by the opponents of Proposition 50.

    Jessica Millan Patterson, a former chair of the state GOP and leader of the “No on Prop. 50 — Stop Sacramento’s Power Grab” committee, has been a longtime proponent of urging Republican voters to cast ballots as early and conveniently as possible.

    “Sacramento politicians rushed this costly election for partisan gain, and mistakes have been made,” she said Sunday evening. “If Californians want change from our state’s failed one-party rule, it starts by turning out to vote no on Proposition 50.”

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    Seema Mehta

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  • On Putin’s advice, Trump launches assault on mail-in ballots and voting machines

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    President Trump said Monday he would renew his assault on mail-in voting after Russia’s autocratic leader, Vladimir Putin, told him to do so at their meeting in Alaska last week.

    The president provided few details, but wrote on social media that he would “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.”

    Already in March, Trump had issued an executive order directing the Justice Department to “take all necessary action” to prevent mail-in ballots received after election day from being counted. The order also attempted to impose a proof of citizenship requirement for voter registration.

    Those portions of the executive action has been enjoined by courts over constitutional concerns. But another provision, directing the independent U.S. Election Assistance Commission to shift its guidance on voting machines banning the use of certain bar codes and quick-response codes, has been allowed to proceed.

    The U.S. Constitution states that the timing, place and manner of elections “shall be prescribed in each state” by local legislatures, and that Congress has the ability to pass laws altering state election regulations. The president is given no authority to prescribe or govern election procedures.

    Nevertheless, Trump wrote Monday that states “are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes.

    “They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do,” he wrote.

    Trump’s action comes on the heels of his meeting with Putin in Anchorage, where the Russian leader told him that mail-in ballots led to his electoral defeat in 2020, according to the president.

    The U.S. intelligence community has assessed that Putin attempted to influence the last three U.S. presidential elections in Trump’s favor.

    Trump blamed his 2020 election loss to President Biden on a conspiracy of voter fraud. But independent analysts, state attorneys general and every court that reviewed the matter found no evidence of fraud that altered results in the race.

    “Vladimir Putin said something — one of the most interesting things. He said, ‘Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting,’” Trump told Fox News in an interview.

    Trump has criticized mail-in voting since entering politics in 2015. But his presidential campaign embraced the practice leading up to the 2024 election, encouraging his supporters — especially those affected by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina — to take advantage of mail-in voting opportunities.

    “Absentee voting, early voting and election day voting are all good options,” Trump said at the time. “Republicans must make a plan, register and vote!”

    But on Monday, Trump wrote that voting machines “cost Ten Times more than accurate and sophisticated Watermark Paper, which is faster, and leaves NO DOUBT, at the end of the evening, as to who WON, and who LOST, the Election.”

    “With their HORRIBLE Radical Left policies, like Open Borders, Men Playing in Women’s Sports, Transgender and ‘WOKE’ for everyone, and so much more, Democrats are virtually Unelectable without using this completely disproven Mail-In SCAM,” Trump wrote.

    “I, AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, WILL FIGHT LIKE HELL TO BRING HONESTY AND INTEGRITY BACK TO OUR ELECTIONS,” he added. “THE MAIL-IN BALLOT HOAX, USING VOTING MACHINES THAT ARE A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER, MUST END, NOW!!!”

    Trump said he would take additional executive action before the 2026 midterm elections, but provided no details on timing.

    In the Oval Office yesterday for a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump said his lawyers were currently in the process of drafting an order. “It’s time that the Republicans get tough and stop it,” he said.

    “Mail-in ballots are corrupt. You can never have a real democracy with mail-in ballots. And we as a Republican Party are going to do everything possible to end mail-in ballots,” Trump said. “They’re corrupt.”

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    Michael Wilner

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