Trump calls for return to paper ballots, end of no-excuses mail-in voting

Former President Donald Trump is offering a specific policy prescription for restoring Americans' confidence in elections, saying it is time for states to return to paper ballots and to end no-excuses absentee ballots so that results can be finalized on Election Day and the nation can stop looking like a "laughing stock" to the world.

"I call them the fake vote store. That's the mail in ballots. We shouldn't have mail in ballots, unless somebody's very, very sick or it's military far away," Trump told the Just the News, No Noise television show in a wide-ranging interview aired Wednesday night on the Real America's Voice network.

The former president said the long delays -- sometimes stretching days or a week or more -- before many states finalize election results in close races has shaken America's confidence and created doubt in foreign countries. The delays, he said, are from the prolific use of mail-in ballots in some states that can sometimes be counted several days after the election if they have an Election Day postmark. 

"We should go to paper ballots, like they did in France. Thirty-six million people (voted) and they had no disputes. Everyone had paper ballots, and it was one-day voting. They didn't store them over there in the corner, and you see the boxes moving all over the place," he said.

The state "should go to one-day voting. They should go to paper ballots. And you would have elections that everybody could be proud of. Because right now, this country is a laughingstock all over the world. They're laughing at our stupid elections," he added.

Trump said he hasn't decided whether to run again for president in 2024 but noted he got 12 million more votes in 2020 than in 2016 and that he continues to get large crowds at his rallies two years after leaving the White House.

Asked if he could imagine his campaigning would extend into 2024, he answered: "I think it will. I think that if I decide to do it, look, the rallies. You've seen the rallies, I think they're bigger than ever," he said.

The 45th president said his primary focus now is to help Republicans win control of Congress, something he said he was growing increasingly confident about as Americans sour on rising crime, energy prices, and inflation.

"The Republicans have a big advantage on crime. I mean, how can you have not a big advantage, when you look at defund the police," he said. "These people (Democrats) still want, and they still talk about defunding the police. So I think it really should be very good for Republicans."