Trump's push to end mail voting will have 'no bearing' on Pa. elections, Gov. Josh Shapiro says

Katie Bernard, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Aug 19, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Tuesday any executive order from President Donald Trump banning mail ballots will have no impact on elections in the commonwealth.

The governor’s comments come 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 have 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 the U.S. 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 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.)