A former colleague of Jimmy Carter has hit back after President Donald Trump misrepresented the former Democratic president’s view on mail-in voting.
On Monday, during an Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump railed against the use of mail-in ballots, saying it was “a fraud,” and brought up a 2005 commission into election reform co-chaired by Carter and former Republican Secretary of State James Baker.
“If you have mail-in, even Jimmy Carter with his commission, they set it up. He said, ‘The one thing about mail-in voting, you will never have an honest election if you have mail-in,'” Trump told reporters as Zelensky watched on.
Now, John Williams, an adviser to Baker who worked on the commission, has told Newsweek that “such a notion goes against President Carter’s thoughts about mail-in voting.” And a spokeswoman for the Carter Center said the former president’s position on mail-in voting was very positive.
AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
Why It Matters
Trump’s comments come as he and his party face a challenging road to the 2026 midterms. Though Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress, recent polling shows the GOP is struggling with voter dissatisfaction.
By reviving attacks on mail-in voting, Trump appears to be laying the groundwork to question the legitimacy of potential losses ahead of what could be a damaging cycle for Republicans.
What To Know
The Commission on Federal Election Reform did raise concerns about absentee voting and ballot security. However, the final report 20 years ago explicitly stopped short of condemning vote-by-mail as inherently fraudulent, instead calling for additional research into its effectiveness.
“The Commission’s only recommendation regarding vote by mail was to encourage ‘further research on the pros and cons’ of that method of voting,” said Williams, who continues to study election administration in collaboration with the Carter Center and acts as spokesperson for Baker.
“I have never seen any evidence which would indicate that President Trump accurately quoted President Carter,” he said.
Newsweek could find no evidence that Carter said words to that effect, either, and previous misquotes about mail-in voting attributed to the Nobel Peace Prize winner by Trump have been debunked.
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In fact, Carter himself—who died in December at the age of 100—encouraged absentee voting during the 2020 election cycle. “I approve the use of absentee ballots and have used them for five years,” Carter said in September that year. And earlier in 2020, he said, “I urge political leaders across the country to take immediate steps to expand vote-by-mail and other measures that can help protect the core of American democracy – the right of our citizens to vote.”
In an email to Newsweek, the Carter Center spokeswoman said that “additional safeguards” had been put in place since the commission. “States have also gained substantial experience in vote-by-mail over the past two decades, showing how key concerns can be effectively addressed through appropriate planning, resources, training, and messaging,” the spokeswoman added.
Baker, who was secretary of state under President George H. W. Bush, was not available for comment.
Mail-in voting is widely used across the U.S. and consistently shown to be safe and reliable. Twenty-eight states allow all voters to cast ballots by mail, while every state offers some form of mail-in or absentee voting.
In eight states—California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington—elections are conducted almost entirely by mail, with no major reported issues. The Carter Center spokeswoman pointed out that the Carter-Baker Commission found “in Oregon, where the entire state has voted by mail since 1998 – there was little evidence of voter fraud.”
Mail systems incorporate multiple security checks, including signature verification, barcode tracking, and ballot curing processes, making coordinated fraud rare and preserving both access and integrity.
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What People Are Saying
Former Secretary of State James Baker, in an email to Politifact in 2021, said of mail-in voting: “I continue to believe such balloting remains a significant source of potential fraud, absent safeguards some states have put in place to help guarantee that a person’s vote is secure.”
Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia Law School, previously told Newsweek: “Any changes would have to be made by Congress. And even Congress can’t change how states run state elections.”
What Happens Next
Trump said lawyers were drafting an executive order that would end mail-in voting, but any attempt to eliminate mail-in voting would face significant legal hurdles. States have constitutional authority over election procedures, meaning a presidential directive cannot unilaterally overturn existing laws.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday: “When Congress comes back to Washington, I’m sure there will be many discussions with our friends on Capitol Hill and also our friends in state legislatures to ensure that we’re protecting the integrity of the vote.”
Update, 08/21/2025, 4:31 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information
