In March 2026, social media users claimed U.S. President Donald Trump voted by mail in a Florida special election after spending years railing against mail-in voting. Democratic candidate Emily Gregory won the Palm Beach election, flipping the seat for state House District 87 — which includes Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club — by defeating Trump-endorsed Republican Jon Maples.
For example, on March 24, the progressive organization Occupy Democrats posted the claim on Facebook, Instagram and X (archived). The X post began, "BREAKING: Trump just got busted voting by mail while actively trying to BAN voting by mail in outrageous show of shameless hypocrisy!" Other users also posted about the matter, and Snopes readers searched our website for more information.
(@OccupyDemocrats/X)
In short, Trump truly voted by mail in the special election. A voting record on Palm Beach County's elections website confirmed this fact. Other records verified first lady Melania Trump and their son, Barron Trump, also voted by mail.
During a March 26 Cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump told a reporter why he cast a mail-in ballot:
You know why? Because I'm president of the United States. And because of the fact that I'm president of the United States, I did a mail-in ballot for elections that took place in Florida.
He also cited provisions regarding the House GOP's proof-of-citizenship voting bill known as the SAVE America Act. The legislation would ban mail-in ballots, with exceptions for illness, disability, military or travel.
Snopes emailed the White House to ask why Trump voted by mail, citing his past criticism of the practice. We also asked for credible evidence of "massive and overwhelming voter fraud" in past elections, referencing Trump's own words about the purported issues with voting by mail. In response, White House spokesperson Olivia Wales said:
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. 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.
Trump similarly voted by mail for Florida's primary election in March 2020, at the time many Americans first became aware of the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic. During an April 7, 2020, coronavirus briefing at the White House, a reporter asked (beginning at 2:02:55 mark) how Trump could reconcile voting by mail after expressing criticism of the procedure. In response, he answered in part, "Because I'm allowed to." He later cast in-person ballots for the November 2020 and November 2024 elections.
The facts about allegations of massive voter fraud
Prior to the 2020 presidential election, Trump repeatedly labeled mail-in voting as "corrupt," "dangerous" and "horrible," including saying, "You'll have tremendous fraud if you do these mail-in ballots." Following his loss in the 2020 election — and the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot — he claimed the Democratic Party committed "massive and overwhelming voter fraud."
In October 2022, U.S. District Judge David Carter said Trump signed a sworn statement asserting voter fraud numbers pertaining to the 2020 election included in a lawsuit were accurate, despite emails from Trump attorney John Eastman allegedly showing Trump knew the numbers were not correct. Carter wrote, "The emails show that President Trump knew that the specific numbers of voter fraud were wrong but continued to tout those numbers, both in court and to the public."
Trump has never presented credible evidence of massive voter fraud.
The Brookings Institution, a think tank self-described as nonpartisan, found an average of four cases of mail-voting fraud out of every 10 million mail votes — or 0.000043%. The report — citing elections from 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 — also noted mail-in voting expands voter access, providing people facing barriers to casting ballots "a practical and secure way to vote."
White House-cited cases of voter fraud
In its email to Snopes, the White House did not provide evidence of massive voter fraud similar to Trump's past claims involving "millions" of ballots.
The White House email linked a handful of reports, including two reports speaking of U.S. voting systems' purported susceptibility to fraud.
Another report pertained in part to the North Carolina State Board of Elections overturning the results of the 2018 election for the state's 9th congressional district, following allegations linking the Republican candidate to ballot fraud.
The final report included in the email told of a New Jersey man charged with procuring, casting and tabulating fraudulent mail-in ballots in the November 2022 elections. An FBI complaint provided four examples of voters who said someone illegally cast ballots bearing their names. The complaint did not mention a total number of illegally submitted ballots.
For further reading, we previously reported the facts about a long-running rumor on the subject of voter fraud — the claim that dead people cast votes.