If reelected, former President Donald Trump promises to ban mail balloting, allow only one day for voting and finish counting on election night.

He claims mailed ballots and extended voting periods are rife with fraud. But there’s no evidence anywhere of significant election cheating.

And it shows how out of touch he is with America’s voting systems.

Twenty-seven states allow what’s called “no-excuse” absentee voting, meaning citizens can cast a ballot by snail mail for any reason they want. Eight of these states — including California, Oregon and Washington — mail ballots to all active registered voters.

Every state permits some form of absentee voting.

Based on tabulations so far, roughly 88% of California’s votes in the November election were cast using mail ballots. That percentage will probably rise when counting is complete.

California has warmly embraced mail balloting. In the gubernatorial election 20 years ago, only 27% voted by mail; 40 years ago, it was a mere 6.5%.

Even this state’s Republican leaders use mail ballots.

“I have voted by mail in California for years,” California GOP Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson told me in an email. “And each time, my ballot was received and counted. It’s easy, it’s convenient and it works for me.”

But Patterson led the California GOP when it and the national party sued to block Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order to send all registered voters a mail ballot during the 2020 pandemic. The suit became moot when the Legislature replaced the order with a law. She then promoted early voting using mail ballots.

“Voting by mail is only growing in popularity across our state,” Patterson emailed. “Democrats utilize this method effectively and have the results to show for it. Whether it’s voting by mail, voting early in person, ballot harvesting or voting on election day, California Republicans need to embrace that there is no right way or wrong way to cast a ballot…. (We need) to make sure no votes are being left on the table.”

Demagogue Trump isn’t listening. Severely scaling back voting options is part of his MAGA comeback platform.

“This is just the beginning of our national greatness agenda,” he proclaimed during his rambling, hour-plus candidacy announcement last month.

“To eliminate cheating,” Trump vowed, “I will immediately demand voter ID, same-day voting and only paper ballots. … So simple.

“And we want all votes counted by election night. … They end up (counting) two weeks later, three weeks later. By that time, everyone forgot there was even an election. It’s horrible. …

“I’ll get that job done. That’s a very personal job for me.”

Yes, he’s still a denier — claiming that the 2020 election was stolen, despite no legitimate evidence to back it up. At least he claims to believe that.

Trump is under the false impression it hurts Republicans.

The guy hasn’t done his homework.

Republicans used to thrive on absentee balloting in California. Republican Richard Nixon narrowly carried his native state over John F. Kennedy in 1960 on the strength of absentee ballots. They also provided the tiny margin of victory for Republican gubernatorial candidate George Deukmejian over Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley in 1982.

“Nothing has ever been shown to indicate any major issues of fraud,” says Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan.

But there’ll be no early voting if Trump has his way. Many states — including red Texas and Florida — now permit it.

And vote counters won’t be allowed to carefully add it all up. They’ll need to rush and finish by Trump’s bedtime.

George Skelton is a Los Angeles Times columnist. ©2022 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.