Mail-In Voting Is Not Only in America
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False Claim of the Week: U.S. Is Not ‘Only Country in the World’ With Mail-In Voting
NewsGuard’s “False Claim of the Week” highlights a false claim from NewsGuard’s False Claim Fingerprints proprietary database of provably false claims and their debunks. The claim that the U.S. is the only country in the world that uses mail-in voting is NewsGuard’s “False Claim of the Week” due to its widespread appearance across social media platforms and websites, its high engagement levels, and the high-profile nature of the sources promoting it, including President Donald Trump. Those three factors — in addition to its significant subject matter — and its potential for harm makes it our False Claim of the Week.
Debunk: U.S. is One of 33 Countries That Uses Mail-in Ballots, Contrary to Trump and Pro-Kremlin Claims
What happened: Donald Trump and pro-Russian and conservative sources are falsely claiming that the United States is the only country that permits voting by mail, advancing the argument that the method leads to widespread corruption and should be eliminated.
A closer look: Trump said in an Aug. 18 Truth Social post that he planned to sign an executive order banning all mail-in ballots to “help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections.”
In the post, which garnered 68,000 likes and 19,200 reposts, Trump stated: “We are now the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting. All others gave it up because of the MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD ENCOUNTERED.”
Trump’s claim was subsequently advanced by Russian news organizations, popular Russian Telegram channels, and conservative social media users in the U.S.
Russian-language news site Rumafia.news published a screenshot of Trump’s post under the headline, “Trump pushes for mail-in voting ban, criticizes electronic election systems.” A screenshot of Trump’s post was also published in the Russian Telegram channel Sheyhtamir1974, attracting 101,000 views and 1,780 likes.
Pro-Kremlin sites often promote false claims that can generate political instability in the U.S., including by reducing trust in the democratic election process.
Actually: Many other countries allow voting by mail, and there is no evidence that mail-in voting leads to widespread voter fraud.
Thirty-three countries allow voters to use mail-in ballots in some capacity, according to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), an intergovernmental organization with 35 member states, including the U.S. The organization’s stated mission is “to promote trust in electoral processes and outcomes.”
In a 2021 study examining mail-in voting laws, IDEA reported that 12 nations allow all voters to mail-in ballots and another 21 allow at least some voters to cast ballots by mail. The other vote-by-mail countries include Canada, the U.K., Germany, and Switzerland, according to the IDEA report.
While voter fraud has occurred with mail-in ballots, evidence indicates that it is rare.
The conservative Heritage Foundation maintains a voter fraud database documenting all known voting fraud cases, including those related to mail-in ballots, dating to 1982. As of Aug. 21, 2025, the database listed a total of 1,600 cases of voter fraud, 378 of which resulted from a fraudulent use of mail-in absentee ballots. For context, in the 2024 U.S. general election, 46.8 million ballots, or 30.3 percent of votes, were cast by mail, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
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