by Cristina Laila May. 18

President Trump on Monday afternoon asked the Justice Department to investigate Maryland officials for sending out “500,000 illegal mail-in ballots.”

Last Friday, Maryland election officials said they will be issuing 500,000 new ballots after a vendor made an error in sending out the first batch of ballots for the state’s gubernatorial primary election.

Statement from the Maryland State Board of Elections:

In order to maintain the highest level of confidence and accuracy in mail-in voting, SBE is working with the vendor to send replacement mail-in ballots. While it is possible only a small number of voters received the wrong ballot, and most voters received the correct ballot, all voters must be issued a replacement ballot. This action of resending ballots maintains the integrity and security of mail-in voting.

This error affects only voters who were mailed a ballot before May 14, 2026. If a voter requested and received their mail-in ballot by web delivery (Print at Home ballot), their ballot will not be affected. All affected voters will be notified.

“We are diligently working to address this error and provide clear instructions to those affected as quickly as possible,” said Maryland State Administrator of Elections, Jared DeMarinis. “The State and Local Boards of Elections remain committed to running an election that is verified, secure and accurate. Mail-in voting is an integral facet of the electoral process. With over

500,000 voters requesting mail-in ballots, we want to eliminate any doubt in its integrity or accuracy that is why I have arranged the sending of replacement ballots.”

On Monday, Maryland election officials insisted the first batch of ballots would be sequestered and voided.

President Trump said Maryland sent out illegal ballots.

Trump’s full statement on Truth Social:

In Maryland, they sent out 500,000 Illegal Mail In Ballots, and they got caught! So now, they’re going to send out 500,000 more Mail In Ballots, but nobody knows what’s happening with the first 500,000 they sent.

In addition, many of these Ballots went to Democrats, so any Republican running in Maryland doesn’t have a chance!

This was done by the Corrupt Governor of the State, Wes Moore. He allowed this to happen in order to make sure that Democrats win. It never made sense to me that Maryland was considered an automatic Democrat State, but now I see why.

I’m sure this has gone on for years. I’m going to ask the Attorney General of the United States, and the DOJ, to bring an immediate investigation into this situation. President DONALD J. TRUMP

Later Monday, President Trump told reporters that he instructed law enforcement to look into the mail-in ballot ‘error.’

“We’re the only country in the world that’s doing mail-in ballots. And mail-in ballots, just by just the nature of them, are going to be corrupt,” Trump said.

“So as you know, in Maryland, 500,000 fake ballots were sent out. When they were caught, they said, oh, we’ll pull them back. And they issued 500,000 new ballots and as you know, they never got the original ballots back. So there are a million ballots out there, many of them went to Democrats,” Trump said.

“So it’s a very, very serious thing that’s happened and I’ve asked the law enforcement to look at it very, very strenuously,” the president added.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/05/trump-asks-doj-launch-investigation-maryland-after-500000/