President casts absentee ballot in special election while GOP lawmakers advance measures limiting mail-in voting access in multiple states
President Donald Trump voted by mail in Florida’s 1st Congressional District special election Tuesday, even as Republican legislators in at least eight states work to impose new restrictions on absentee and mail-in voting with support from his administration.
The White House confirmed Trump submitted an absentee ballot from Washington for the race to fill the seat vacated by Representative Matt Gaetz, who resigned in January to join the administration. Florida election officials received the president’s ballot on Monday, according to Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections Paul Lux.
Trump has voted by mail in Florida elections regularly since establishing residency at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach in 2019, using the state’s no-excuse absentee voting system that allows any registered voter to request a mail ballot without providing a reason. He voted absentee in the 2020 general election, the 2022 midterms, and several local contests.
The president’s continued use of mail voting stands in tension with his public statements questioning the security of the practice and his administration’s support for state-level efforts to limit absentee ballot access. At a rally in Ohio last month, Trump said mail-in voting “opens the door to massive fraud” and praised Republican governors who have signed laws tightening vote-by-mail rules.
“The president trusts Florida’s election system because Florida has strong safeguards in place,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said when asked about the apparent inconsistency. “He supports commonsense measures to ensure only eligible voters cast ballots, which some states don’t have.”
Florida does require voters to request absentee ballots for each election cycle and has rules for signature verification, though the state allows any registered voter to vote by mail without specifying a reason. More restrictive proposals in other states would limit mail voting to voters who meet specific criteria, such as being over 65, having a disability, or being out of town on Election Day.
Republican-controlled legislatures in Georgia, Arizona, Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Nevada have introduced or advanced bills this year that would reduce access to mail voting compared to current law. The measures vary but include provisions requiring notarization of absentee ballots, limiting who can request them, reducing the window for returning them, or eliminating permanent absentee voter lists.
“These bills are solutions in search of problems,” said Michael McDonald, a University of Florida political scientist who studies voting behavior. “There’s no evidence of widespread fraud in mail voting, but there is clear evidence that these restrictions reduce turnout, particularly among elderly voters, people with disabilities, and voters in rural areas.”
Supporters of the restrictions argue they’re necessary to restore public confidence in elections after the 2020 presidential contest, which Trump continues to claim without evidence was affected by fraud. Multiple audits, court cases, and investigations found no irregularities that would have changed the outcome.
Georgia’s proposed legislation would eliminate no-excuse absentee voting entirely, returning to a system where voters must provide one of six specific reasons to vote by mail. The bill passed the state House last week and is under consideration in the Senate.
In Arizona, a bill that cleared committee would require absentee ballots to be notarized and returned at least 10 days before Election Day, compared to the current deadline of Election Day itself. County election officials testified against the measure, saying it would create logistical problems and disenfranchise voters whose ballots arrive in the final days.
The push to limit mail voting comes despite data showing Republicans have increasingly embraced the practice. In Florida’s 2024 general election, 36% of Republican votes were cast by mail, up from 28% in 2020, according to state election data. Democrats cast 42% of their votes by mail in 2024.
“Republicans have gotten over their suspicions about vote by mail because it’s convenient and it works,” said Ryan Williams, a Republican strategist who worked on presidential campaigns. “So it’s ironic that GOP legislatures are trying to make it harder to do something their own voters like and use.”
Trump’s ballot in Tuesday’s special election went to support Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret and White House advisor whom Trump has endorsed in the race. The contest to fill Gaetz’s seat in the heavily Republican district includes four candidates, with the winner expected to be decided in the first round if any candidate receives more than 50% of the vote.
The president’s voting pattern mirrors that of many Americans who discovered mail voting during the COVID-19 pandemic and continued using it for convenience. Nationwide, 46 million voters cast mail ballots in the 2024 general election, representing about 31% of all votes, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
Democrats have seized on Trump’s mail voting as evidence of hypocrisy. “The president wants election rules that benefit him while making it harder for everyone else to vote,” said Representative Pete Aguilar of California, chair of the House Democratic Caucus. “That’s not how democracy works.”
Some Republicans have privately expressed concern that restricting mail voting could hurt their party’s electoral prospects, particularly among older voters who prefer the convenience of voting from home. An AARP survey last year found that 68% of voters over 65 had voted by mail at least once, and 52% said they preferred it to in-person voting.
“We’re shooting ourselves in the foot,” said one Republican state legislator in Michigan who asked not to be named to avoid criticism from party leadership. “Our base likes vote by mail. Why are we trying to take it away?”
Election administration experts note that Florida’s system, which Trump uses, includes many of the features that other Republican-led states are trying to eliminate elsewhere, including no-excuse access and relatively generous deadlines for requesting and returning ballots.
The debate over mail voting is expected to intensify as states finalize election procedures ahead of the 2026 midterms. Several of the proposed restrictions face legal challenges from voting rights groups, who argue they violate constitutional protections for ballot access.
For now, Trump continues to use Florida’s expansive mail voting system while endorsing limits on similar systems in other states, a position that underscores the complicated politics surrounding an issue that has become increasingly partisan since 2020.