Trump Votes by Mail in Florida, Loses Election in His Home District

Records reveal the president cast his ballot by mail, despite calling the voting method "cheating" and "crooked"

Photos by Gage Skidmore and Emily Gregory for State House District 87

Florida voting records reveal that Donald Trump, who aims to shut down vote-by-mail options across the country through the SAVE Act, submitted a mail-in ballot to participate in a Palm Beach County special election last weekend.

Furthermore, Republicans were unable to defend the president’s home district on Tuesday despite having his vote and endorsement in the race. Ultimately, it was Emily Gregory, a Democratic small business owner, who was declared the victor on election night, flipping Mar-a-Lago from red to blue in spectacular fashion.

It was another incredible overperformance by Democrats, who cruised to victory in the state House district Trump previously won by 11 percentage points in 2024.

It goes without saying that Trump has been highly critical of mail-in voting in recent years, particularly after his loss in the 2020 election against President Joe Biden. Attributing his defeat to unsubstantiated claims of mass fraud involving absentee ballots, he has been on a crusade to restrict vote-by-mail ever since.

And although mail-in voting has proven to be a safe, convenient, and secure option that has made elections more accessible to Republicans and Democrats alike, Trump continues to portray it as fraudulent — even as he takes advantage of it himself.

“Mail-in voting means mail-in cheating,” he said during an event in Memphis, Tennessee, just days after casting his ballot. “I call it mail-in cheating, and we got to do something about it all.”

“No more crooked mail-in ballots,” he similarly demanded during last month’s State of the Union address.

Justifying his decision to vote by mail, the administration argued that the president’s busy schedule and travel requirements left him with no other option.

“As President Trump has said, the SAVE America Act has commonsense exceptions for Americans to use mail-in ballots for illness, disability, military, or travel — but universal mail-in voting should not be allowed because it’s highly susceptible to fraud,” a spokesperson claimed, without evidence. “As everyone knows, the President is a resident of Palm Beach and participates in Florida elections, but he obviously primarily lives at the White House in Washington, D.C. This is a non-story.”

It would not be the first time he has used this excuse, either. “You know why I voted [by mail]? Because I happened to be in the White House, and I won’t be able to go to Florida and vote,” he said after voting in the 2020 election.

However, this argument is contradicted by his frequent visits to Florida over the past month, where he has been relaxing at his private golf resorts, even as his costly war against Iran continues without a clear end in sight. In fact, early in-person voting was open in Palm Beach County between March 14 and March 22, so he had plenty of opportunities to cast his ballot using his party’s preferred method.

In reality, Trump votes by mail, not because he is preoccupied at the White House, but because it is the safest and most convenient option available to him. Nevertheless, he remains hell-bent on restricting the practice nationwide, denying millions of voters the same privilege he enjoys every election year.

Although the president’s proposed ‘SAVE America Act’ would not eliminate vote-by-mail entirely, voters would have to submit a special application to receive a ballot, and would also be required to send a photocopy of their passport or birth certificate to prove their citizenship. Universal mail-in voting and automatic voter registration, as practiced in eight states and Washington, DC, would be banned.

The requirement to produce a matching birth certificate or a valid passport, regardless of voting method, would by itself disenfranchise tens of millions of voters from future elections. Many people, including most married women who have changed their last name, do not have have a birth certificate available, and obtaining a passport can cost upwards of one hundred dollars.

Of course, these bureaucratic hurdles would not actually do anything to enhance election integrity. Voter fraud is statistically rare, and in states such as Oregon and Washington, where mail-in voting has been the standard for decades, there has never been a single reported case where it has affected the outcome of an election. Fraud committed by undocumented immigrants, meanwhile, is even rarer.

If you need proof that voting by mail is safe, reliable, and secure, look no further than the president’s own preferred voting method. While Republicans will deny it, there is no difference in election security between a single mother voting from her living room and the president of the United States voting from the Oval Office.

Given Tuesday’s election result, the real reason why Trump and Republicans are so desperate to suppress voter turnout is obvious.

Voters around the country are souring on their America Last agenda, and as of this week, even the president’s home district in Florida has turned against him. Instead of reversing course on their broken promises, Republicans are preparing to rig national elections by purging voter rolls and making it more difficult to vote.

Moreover, some Republicans have also floated the idea of stationing ICE agents outside of polling places, similar to how they are currently standing around in airports, with the intent to intimidate voters of color. In order for this method of voter suppression to work, voters must be forced to vote in person.

Make no mistake, Trump and his sycophants are not losing elections across the country because of fraud — they are losing because their policies have become universally unpopular. From kicking millions of people off their health insurance to starting a new war of choice in the Middle East, they have thoroughly abandoned the American people.

Just as they were after the 2020 election, Republicans are once again being sore losers who would rather subvert the will of the people than admit to an honest defeat.

Thankfully, the public is beginning to catch on, and at this rate, not even the SAVE Act will save them from a blue wave in November.

Mar-a-Lago is now represented by a Democrat in the Florida state legislature, and with luck, the rest of the country will soon follow.

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