Trump orders Justice Department to investigate mail ballots in Maryland [View all]

Source: Politico

05/18/2026 05:04 PM EDT Updated: 05/18/2026 06:56 PM EDT


President Donald Trump on Monday said he would ask the Justice Department to open an investigation into an error regarding mail-in ballots in Maryland, his latest clash with Democratic Gov. Wes Moore as he pushes unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud.

The Maryland State Board of Elections announced last week that it had been “made aware of an error by our mail-in ballot vendor” that led to some voters receiving ballots for the wrong party in the state’s upcoming primaries. Maryland State Administrator of Elections Jared DeMarinis said in a Friday statement that the board was working to address the error by sending replacement ballots.

He said over 500,000 voters had requested mail-in ballots, but added that only voters who were mailed ballots before May 14 were affected by the error. Still, Trump claimed in a social media post, without evidence, that the state “sent out 500,000 Illegal Mail In Ballots, and they got caught!” adding that “nobody knows what’s happening with the first 500,000 they sent.”

Trump has long targeted mail-in voting, spreading conspiracy theories about the practice as the reason for why he lost his reelection bid in 2020. Since then, he has advocated for eliminating no-excuse mail voting — a practice that is common across red and blue states — in favor of allowing for only a very limited use of the voting method.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/18/trump-department-of-justice-maryland-election-00926885