Democratic voters shift from mail-in to in-person early voting amid Trump pressure

As President Donald Trump continues his offensive against mail-in voting, Democratic-leaning voters are increasingly abandoning mail ballots in favor of in-person early voting ahead of next month's midterm elections, the Washington Post reported Thursday (local time).

Researchers at the University of Florida analyzed voting patterns across eight states — including Georgia, Wisconsin and Nevada — and found that mail ballot requests had fallen compared with the 2022 midterms in six of those states, according to the Post.

In Georgia, mail ballot applications dropped 40 percent from 2022, while in-person early voting surged. Wisconsin also saw a decline in mail voting; on Tuesday, the first day of in-person early voting, more than 55,000 people cast ballots — a 65 percent increase over the first day of early voting during the 2022 midterms.

The shift away from mail voting and toward in-person balloting was particularly pronounced among Democratic voters.

An analysis by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that among Democratic voters in North Carolina who had already cast ballots this year, more than half of those who used mail voting in 2022 had switched to in-person early voting.

Political data firm VoteHub, analyzing early voting in Nevada, found that 18 percent of Democrats who voted in person early this year had used mail ballots in the 2024 presidential election.

The shift is widely attributed to growing voter distrust as the Trump administration has repeatedly questioned the reliability of mail voting and sought to restrict it.

Trump has long claimed that mail voting is exploited for electoral fraud by Democrats, and ahead of the current midterms he attempted to limit mail ballots through an executive order. The Supreme Court subsequently ruled that the administration could not restrict mail voting, but distrust and controversy over the administration's management of elections persist.

Zachary Donini, VoteHub's head of data, told the Post that engaged voters who follow the news closely "would know that Trump tried to undermine the US Postal Service," adding that the reaction has been: "I can't trust the postal service. I'm going to submit my ballot in person."

The Democratic Party has also been encouraging voters to cast ballots without relying on the mail — either by visiting a polling site directly or, if using mail, by sending ballots as early as possible.

Rep. Karen Brownlee of Ohio, a Democrat, said voters have concerns about mail voting "but there are also ways to drop your ballot directly into a secure drop box. A lot of Democratic voters are doing that."

Some Democrats have raised allegations that Trump's fixation on mail voting is aimed at suppressing turnout among Democratic voters. So far, however, there is no evidence that participation has declined; if anything, early voting is surging nationwide, the Post reported.