The Trump administration has misrepresented former President Jimmy Carter's views on mail-in voting while advocating for stricter federal voting requirements. President Donald Trump and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt cited a 2005 Commission on Federal Election Reform report to claim Carter opposed mail-in and absentee ballots due to fraud concerns.

The commission, co-chaired by Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker, published findings that "absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud." However, the report did not discourage mail-in voting but instead recommended safeguards to reduce fraud risks. The commission noted Oregon's vote-by-mail system showed "little evidence of fraud" after seven years of operation.

Carter's grandson Jason Carter and The Carter Center disputed the administration's characterization, stating the former president supported mail-in voting throughout his life and used it himself. In May 2020, Carter publicly urged political leaders to "expand vote-by-mail" during the COVID-19 pandemic, and later that year explicitly stated he approved absentee ballots and had been using them for years.

Mail-in voting usage has grown from approximately 13% of voters in 2004 to nearly one-third in 2024, when Trump won the presidency. Election security experts say there is no evidence of widespread fraud associated with mail-in balloting, noting that states have improved safeguards over the past two decades.

The Trump administration is using these claims to support the SAVE America Act, which would impose new proof-of-citizenship and photo identification requirements for voting ahead of midterm elections. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson defended the statements, saying officials quoted directly from the 2005 report.