Disability Voting News: November 12, 2025
Welcome to the post-election edition of The Accessible Voting Booth! From Virginia to California, we saw a blue wave of results at the polls last week. As a Virginian I am personally relieved that we will have a legislature and state leaders who will protect voting rights, trans people, reproductive health, and so many other people and policies that matter to me. But I also know that the Administration's response to this election will be an even stronger firehose of efforts to make it more difficult for Americans to vote, and Trump has already renewed his vow that he will try to eliminate vote by mail through an Executive Order. Let’s get into it.
Maine voters say no to voter ID and absentee ballot restrictions (via Maine Public).
Last Tuesday, Maine voters rejected Ballot Question 1, which by midnight was failing 36.1% to 63.9%. This is a great win against voter suppression and for disability rights, as this would have required voters to show a state-issued driver’s license or non-driver ID, passport, passport card, or military ID to obtain a ballot. Additionally, this would have shortened the early voting period, ended the ability of voters to sign up for permanent mail ballots, and severely restricted the location of ballot drop boxes. Voters would not be able to request an absentee ballot by phone, which would also restrict access for many voters with disabilities.
As I’ve stated so many times, disabled voters are disproportionately less likely to have access to non-expired driver’s licenses, and more than 140 million Americans do not currently have a passport. Disabled Mainers sounded the alarm on this initiative and how it would restrict access to the ballot, as disabled people experience access barriers to obtaining ID and to traveling in-person to an election office to obtain a ballot.
This is good news for protecting access to vote by mail in Maine. But the threats to vote by mail are just beginning to escalate because…
State election panel recommends ending no-excuse absentee voting in Georgia (via Georgia Recorder).
The Trump-aligned State Election Board in Georgia voted 3-2 to recommend to the state Legislature to end no-excuse absentee voting, which has been in place in Georgia since 2005. Last year, the board shot down a similar proposal. Their rationale closely mirrors Trump’s language (incorrectly) declaring that vote by mail is not secure while ignoring that there has been no evidence found by even The Heritage Foundation of widespread voter fraud in Georgia or anywhere else in the country. From Brookings:
“In Georgia, Heritage has reported no cases of fraud in the 2020 or 2022 general elections, in which nearly nine million votes were cast. Otherwise, just one case of fraud has been reported in the state in the last four years. It involved a 62-year-old convicted felon who filled out and submitted a ballot sent to the wrong address during the January 2021 Senate runoff election.”
But that won’t stop Trump-aligned politicians and election officials from attacking vote by mail, starting with no-excuse absentee voting in Georgia. No-excuse absentee voting means that you don’t need a qualifying reason such as disability or being out of town on election day to vote by mail. This provides flexibility to voters who have many reasons to vote by mail, including busy work schedules, lack of access to transportation, and wanting to avoid long lines on Election Day. It also makes it easier for many disabled people to vote, including those who don’t have apparent disabilities or feel like they would otherwise not qualify to vote absentee on the basis of disability.
The Georgia legislature will take up this recommendation in the 2026 legislative session, so we just have to sit tight until then, but these attacks on vote by mail aren’t just happening at the state level…
White House is working on an Executive Order on elections (and specifically vote by mail), press secretary says (via Reuters).
On Election Day, press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The White House is working on an executive order to strengthen our elections in this country and to ensure that there cannot be blatant fraud, as we've seen in California with their universal mail-in voting system.” This came before Trump’s Truth Social tirades attacking California’s vote by mail system. Democracy Docket reports:
“The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED,” Trump posted on Truth Social Tuesday morning. “All ‘Mail-In’ Ballots, where the Republicans in that State are ‘Shut Out,’ is under very serious legal and criminal review. STAY TUNED!”
Earlier this year, Trump announced his intent to issue an Executive Order to get rid of mail-in ballots and voting machines ahead of the 2026 election. I covered why this threat harms voters with disabilities extensively in my August 20th issue. Of course, Trump does not have the power to ban mail-in voting, as explained clearly by experts such as Protect Democracy. The Constitution’s Elections Clause gives power to state legislatures to run elections, while Congress maintains power to make nationwide changes to voting. Trump does not have the authority to ban mail-in voting, but it doesn’t mean he won’t try, just as he tried to require documentary proof of citizenship on the national mail voter registration form via his Executive Order on “Election Integrity.”
But that isn’t going so well for him right now, because…
Federal judge rules Trump can’t require citizenship proof on federal voting form (via ABC).
On Friday, October 31, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sided with civil rights groups who sued the Trump administration over the “Election Integrity” Executive Order, ruling that this requirement for documentary proof of citizenship cannot be enforced and is an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers:
“Because our Constitution assigns responsibility for election regulation to the States and to Congress, this Court holds that the President lacks the authority to direct such changes.”
However, this fight over the national mail voter registration form isn’t over, as the Trump-aligned America First Legal Foundation petitioned the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to amend the National Mail Voter Registration Form to require documentary proof of citizenship. The EAC received nearly 400,000 comments in response to this rule from (including mine, which far surpassed the character limits allowed in comments on regulations.gov). The EAC will now need to sift through those comments and determine their response to the petition. The ACLU also submitted a comprehensive comment and is tracking this petition.
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