Remember the days when voting was easy, and we accepted the results of the elections? Well, Donald Trump wants to end those days.
Trump has signed an executive order that would ban mail-in voting. That’s alarming.
Trump claims we’re the only country that allows voting by mail. The reality is, more than 30 countries use it.
Trump opposes mail-in voting so much, that he actually uses it himself.
Trump said, “Mail-in voting means mail-in cheating…Cheating on mail-in voting is legendary.”
Actually, Trump’s lying is legendary.
“Our mail-in system has worked well,” Republican North Dakota Secretary of State Michael Howe told me. “We have checks and balances in place to make sure people are who they say they are, and are only voting once.
In North Dakota’s Cass County, 40% to 60% of voters use mail-in ballots or vote early.
“Mail-in voting is just as secure as voting in person on Election Day,” former Cass County Auditor Mike Montplaisir told me. He should know. He was auditor for 33 years, covering 16 election cycles.
Mail-in ballots are compared to the ballot applications to make sure the names, addresses, driver’s licenses and signatures all match.
“Our judges are checking signatures,” Montplaisir said. “If the signatures don’t match, the voter is contacted…The equipment counts the ballots. It’s about as secure as you can be.”
In 36 of North Dakota’s 53 counties, voting by mail is the norm. That’s because the counties are so vast. Thus, there’s only one in-person voting location that’s open on Election Day in those counties.
“As a very rural state, we rely on absentee voting,” Howe said.
Another factor is North Dakota’s weather, which can be nasty in November.
“Our weather makes mail-in voting really important,” Montplaisir said. “You never know what’s going to happen on Election Day. A lot of the older population likes to vote early.”
In Clay County, Minnesota, 39% of voters use absentee ballots.
“There’s no way to cheat the system,” Clay County Auditor Lori Johnson told me. “We’re checking ID’s. You can’t make one up and send it in. We do vigorous checking.”
For many people in North Dakota, Minnesota and elsewhere, voting by mail is a necessity. Voters could be disabled, elderly, live far from voting locations, or be serving in the military.
Of course, what Trump is doing shouldn’t even matter. Presidents have no legal role in operating elections or changing voting laws.
It clearly states in Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution that states run elections, while Congress can alter voting regulations.
“The latest unconstitutional power grab will meet the same fate as the rest. It will not stand,” said Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon. “The president does not have the authority to make unilateral changes to election laws…Voting by mail is secure and trustworthy. Millions of Minnesotans have used this service for decades…The president’s attempts to create chaos, stroke fears and undermine our elections will not work.”
He’s spot on. Trump has no right to ban mail-in voting.
There are two things going on. First, Trump, with his enormous ego, can’t accept the fact that he lost the 2020 election. He knows he lost, but isn’t man enough to admit it. So, he blames mail-in voting, even though there’s no proof of any irregularities.
Second, the man who claimed the 2020 election was rigged is trying to rig future elections. Whether it be trying to ban mail-in voting or pass the frightening “SAVE Act” (Shamefully supported by Senators Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven and Representatives Julie Fedorchak and Michelle Fischbach), Trump is trying to prevent millions of eligible American citizens from voting.
The “SAVE Act” is allegedly going after noncitizen voting, which is extremely rare. In fact, the North Dakota Secretary of State’s office told me there have been no confirmed reports of noncitizens voting in the state.
—I’m just trying to figure out why Melania Trump held a news conference to deny any connections to Jeffrey Epstein. Nobody had been talking about that. Of course, it’s easy to understand that in a place as small as New York City, how they kept bumping into each other.
The man who should be talking about this is Donald Trump, who is mentioned 38,000 times in the Epstein files. Also, how come Trump’s Justice Department hasn’t prosecuted any American for having sex with Epstein’s women and girls, many of whom were raped and/or under 18-years-old?
—Congrats to former Forum Opinion Page Editor and Columnist Jack Zaleski on becoming a new columnist for the North Dakota Monitor. Jack is an excellent writer with tons of expertise and experiences to share. The Monitor is a terrific source for news that covers news from across the state.
(Jim Shaw is a veteran newsman and journalist based in Fargo, ND. Read his weekly column at kfgo.com and listen Thursday afternoons.)
Spot on column again, Jim! I like the way KFGO has set up the audio recording format as I missed you on the radio today. I like the “time shift” of the way this is available at my convenience. I’ve written to our Congressional delegation (too late for Rep. Fedorchak because she voted FOR the “Save” act)…but Senators Hoeven and Cramer are yet to vote as of 4-16-2026. I understand that if this Republican voting bill is passed, if my wife and I wanted to continue voting by mail, as we have since it was started, we would have to make photocopies of our Passports and our Real ID driver’s licenses and include those with our ballot. Who is going to process all that and at what needless cost? Most seniors in ND do not have passports and their birth certificates are hard to find in old age. And what about all the photocopies in order to comply what might be the law. Why are Republicans so hell bent on limiting voting? What are they afraid of? Good to have your column available again! Keep up the excellent work!
Great article Jim, Good to know that Trump doesn’t have the authority to change mail in votes. I have several times and the majority did during the pandemic.
Her little press conference was embarrassing. There’s emails from her to Maxwell and several pics. And to have Trump say the next day that he knew nothing about her press conference, they should have both shut up, it didn’t change anything. I’ve seen Republicans not understanding that it doesn’t matter which party a Sex Offender is in. Maybe they get it now with no Democrats condoning Eric Swalwell.
Congratulations to Jack. I donated to the paper and receive emails.
Good luck to Joan too.
Jim, thanks for the great response to Trump’s utter nonsense. Rural areas are especially dependent on mail-in voting because the farms and towns are very spread out. Elderly people still have the right to vote, and it is easier to use the US Mail. That is especially true up North, when “the gales of November come early”.
You shouldn’t want to disenfranchise a voter. Avoiding a long, unnecessary, and expensive drive (especially at current fuel prices) to a city just to vote is a good thing. Secretaries of State and local election officials recognize that. There are systems in place to validate voters. I am an Election Judge (that & $5 will NOT get me a fancy Starbucks coffee) and if we have doubts we can ask the voter to show a state ID or sign a new affidavit in front of us. While I have questioned voters every election, I have only had to challenge one fraudulent voter. He asked for the Republican ballot, and gave me his affidavit saying he was General Grant and he signed it Teddie Roosevelt. He ran out when I asked for his ID.
I greatly appreciate your standing up for empirical reality. Even the right-wing Heritage Foundation research didn’t find a problem with mail-in voter fraud.
Scuttlebutt has it that the post office no longer has to date the article the day you deposit it. Another attempt to screw with mail-in ballots. Ballots may not get a date stamp prior to the election and be thrown out.
I can’t believe, Jim, this is happening in America. A tyrant, with the stroke of a pen, is changing the way so many of us vote. The points you make about the elderly, an age bracket my wife and I are in, have voted by mail-in ballot in state, city and federal elections ever since the concept was born. We are very careful to do it right and I hand carry our ballot envelopes to the steel lockbox outside the Cass County Court House. And those folks in large counties with only one or two polling places…many simply won’t vote. Why is the POTUS and the Republican Party going to such lengths to limit voting? Ever since the1960s, opportunities to vote have been expanded in the best interest of democracy. Now, these rights should be limited by an ego-maniacal would-be dictator?