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Galvin rejects Trump’s pledge to eliminate mail-in voting
“Responding to his rhetoric is a waste of time. He lies all the time and he exaggerates all the time, so there’s no point to it."
Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin is dismissing President Trump’s pledge to eliminate the mail-in voting “hoax,” saying it won’t hold up in court.
President Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday, “I am going to lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots” through an executive order ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
“Democrats are virtually Unelectable without using this completely disproven Mail-In SCAM,” the president wrote.
But Galvin told GBH this week that mail-in ballots are popular, effective and secure, and there is no evidence proving Trump’s claim that mail-in ballots lead to fraud.
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“We’ve had a number of elections — and they’re continuing through this year with municipal elections — where people are choosing to vote by mail. They’re very comfortable with it,” Galvin told GBH.
Massachusetts began allowing all voters to utilize mail-in ballots in 2020 during the pandemic, and it became a permanent option via the 2022 VOTES Act. However, a proposal that may become a 2026 ballot question could once again limit mail-in ballot eligibility to voters with certain specific circumstances, “to enhance the integrity of the voting process,” the proposal states.
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Monday’s post comes after Massachusetts, alongside 18 other states, sued Trump for a March executive order requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote, and invalidating mail-in ballots received after Election Day despite a pre-Election Day postmark, which 18 states allow, according to NPR.
“Responding to his rhetoric is a waste of time. He lies all the time and he exaggerates all the time, so there’s no point to it,” Galvin told GBH. “What you do is you go to court, you show by facts, which we have here in Massachusetts.”
Massachusetts set an example that “people can effectively vote by mail,” Gavin told GBH.
In the 2024 election, over one-third of Massachusetts voters utilized mail in ballots. In last September’s primary, 62% of those who voted in the election voted by mail, Galvin’s office told GBH.
“We have protocols in place to protect voters, make sure that nobody takes advantage of them, and any evidence of any kind of impropriety, we move on quickly,” Galvin told GBH. “For all these reasons, it’s worked here in Massachusetts.”
Same-day voter registration
In addition to responding to Trump’s attempts to change voting regulations, Galvin is driving an initiative to get same-day voter registration on next year’s ballot.
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Currently, state law sets the cutoff for voter registration to 10 days before Election Day, as determined by the 2022 VOTES Act.
“I have long supported allowing Massachusetts voters to register to vote at their polling place on Election Day,” Galvin wrote in a statement. “Unfortunately, efforts to pass Election Day registration through the normal process have repeatedly been blocked in the Legislature.”
According to a poll conducted by UMASS Amherst in 2024, 64% of Massachusetts voters support allowing same-day voter registration.
If the initiative makes it on the ballot and passes, Massachusetts would join 23 states, including Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, in allowing same-day registration beginning in 2028, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
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