As the Supreme Court ruled against the U.S. Post Office’s bid to change mail-in voting procedures just days before the process begins, it’s worth visiting the claim that “nobody else” allows mail-in voting. I report data from the IDEA organization, then do a little digging into countries that supposedly don’t allow voting by mail, to separate fact from fiction.
Just over a year ago, Trump heavily criticized mail-in voting, after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “‘We are now the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting,’ Trump wrote in an August 18 Truth Social post,” according to PBS. Later, he added “‘And do you know that we’re the only country in the world — I believe, I may be wrong — but just about the only country in the world that uses (mail-in voting) because of what’s happened, massive fraud all over the place,’ Trump said.”
People find this ironic because Trump himself votes by mail, even when he has the opportunity to vote in person, in primary and general election.
“Democracy for me, not for thee”, evidently.
So I researched this claim that the United States is the only country in the world that uses mail-in-voting, using data from the pro-democracy IDEA international organization.
According to Anna Fleck in the April 10 article “Mail-in voting U.S. Is Not the ‘Only Country’ To Have Mail-in Ballots,” we find “More than 30 countries worldwide offer their citizens the opportunity to vote using a mail-in ballot. Research carried out by International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) shows that of these, 11 countries permit all voters the opportunity to use a mail-in ballot. This runs counter to the false claim that U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on March 29, 2026 that the United States is the ‘only country in the world that has mail-in ballots.’ In addition to the United States, the group of countries that allows all voters to cast their ballot by mail includes Canada, Germany, Iceland, South Korea, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Poland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.”
So I researched the countries that allegedly don’t allow mail-in ballots from the IDEA list. Denmark calls it “advanced voting,” but they allow mail-in ballots in certain circumstances. I learned how to vote by mail in Portugal, another country on the supposed “no mail-in voting.” Ditto Norway, Sweden, and Finland, other alleged “no vote” countries. Italy writes “VOTING is a RIGHT protected by the Italian Constitution, and in accordance with Law no. 459 of December 27, 2001, Italian citizens who reside abroad and are registered on the electoral rolls of the overseas constituency can VOTE BY MAIL.” And yeah, they used all caps. Among democracies, only Israel (Netanyahu) seems to threaten the freedom to vote by mail.
There are plenty of countries who don’t have voting by mail on IDEA’s map. They’re just called authoritarian countries. Russia, East Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and East Asia, with the exception of the democratic countries like India and Pakistan, Costa Rica, etc., have banned the practice of voting by mail. But as anyone in those nations knows, those autocratic regimes are pretty bad about doing in-person voting too. These undemocratic or semi-democracies have also attacked voting by mail or absentee as being fraud. At least in the USA, voting fraud is super-rare, as noted even with research conducted by conservative organizations. Thanks to the Supreme Court, the freedom of citizens to vote by mail will be upheld, as it has been in other democracies throughout the world.
John A. Tures is Professor of Political Science and Coordinator of the Political Science Program at LaGrange College, in LaGrange, Georgia. His first book, “Branded”, is available on Amazon. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu.