California Governor Gavin Newsom, along with local congressional representatives, state officials and supporters, speaks as he announces the redrawing of California's congressional maps, calling on voters to approve a ballot measure, in response to a similar move in Texas being supported by U.S. President Donald Trump, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., August 14, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake
During his Monday, August 18 press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House Oval Office, U.S. President Donald Trump strayed from foreign policy when he discussed U.S. elections. Trump claimed, without evidence, that mail-in voting encourages election fraud, and he floated the possibility of an executive order that prohibit voting by mail nationwide and encourage paper ballots and in-person voting.
NBC News reporter Adam Noboa, in an article published on August 19, examines the effect that Trump's campaign against voting my mail could have in California.
"Trump has criticized mail-in ballots since their rapid rise in 2020, when after years of slower growth they exploded as a key innovation of the COVID election," Noboa reports. "But the logistics of counting mail-in votes helped keep the nation in suspense over who won for nearly four days after polls closed. This latest push by Trump may also have the convenience of being the latest line of attack in the redistricting wars."
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Noboa adds, "In California, state Democrats are attempting their own mid-decade gerrymander to counter the Trump-led push by Republicans to draw more friendly districts in Texas. And California sticks out as one of the most prominent embracers of mail-in voting — and among the slowest to count them."
Noboa points out that nationwide, mail-in voting accounted for 30 percent of votes cast in 2024. But in California, the number is 81 percent, according to the Election Assistance Commission.
California, according to Noboa, "has had some of the greatest difficulties sorting through mail votes quickly."
NBC News notes that state legislators in California are moving forward with plans for redistricting—a response to the redistricting/gerrymandering scheme that Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott are pushing in Texas.
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According to NBC News, "It may put the redistricting wars and Trump's renewed crusade on mail-in votes on a political collision course in the Golden State."
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Read the full NBC News article at this link.