The past week has brought both positive and negative news for supporters of expanded access to voting by mail.
During last week's election, voters in New York rejected a ballot proposal that would have directed the Legislature to pass a bill allowing for no-excuse absentee ballots. The result caught many by surprise, as most states — especially those that tend to vote Democratic — have such policies in place. Instead, only 38 percent of voters in the nation's fourth most populous state supported the proposal.
Meanwhile, the D.C. City Council began the process this week for institutionalizing vote-by-mail for the nearly 700,000 residents of the nation's capital.
While Americans used mail-in voting at a historic rate in 2020, New York lagged behind most other states. According to a report issued this summer by the federal Election Assistance Commission, 43.1 percent of voters used mail-in ballots last year. But only 20.3 percent of New Yorkers selected that option, the 12th lowest rate.
According to Ballotpedia, 34 states either provide all voters with a mail ballot or allow the use of an absentee ballot without providing a reason. The remaining 16, primarily Republican-dominated states in the South, require voters to meet certain requirements in order to vote by absentee ballot.
Another proposal, which would have allowed people to register to vote and cast a ballot on Election Day, was also defeated. Proponents of such policies argue that same-day registration increases turnout, considered a key component of a strong democracy. And a third proposal, one that would have reformed the state's redistricting process, went down as well.
"The failure of props 1, 3, and 4 is a black eye for democracy," Common Cause New York's executive director, Susan Lerner, said in a statement. "These results are a cautionary tale showing that even in deep blue New York, we can't take pro-democracy outcomes for granted. Anti-democracy forces are drowning out common-sense reforms with fear mongering scare tactics, and voters are listening."
According to The Guardian, the Conservative and Republican parties vastly out-spent Democrats to fight those proposals and devoted significant on-the-ground resources as well.
While New York has settled these issues for the time being, some potential election reforms are just getting underway in Washington, D.C.
New legislation was introduced Tuesday to make a series of changes to D.C. election laws, including the establishment of a permanent vote-by-mail system. The city made a one-time decision to mail ballots to all voters for the 2020 general election, and this bill would codify such a system for future elections.
The bill would also increase the use of ballot drop boxes, establish voting centers and make Election Day a holiday.
"D.C. held a safe, secure, and accessible election by making it easier to vote and safe to vote from home," said the bill's sponsor, Councilmember Charles Allen. "These are common sense and popular changes we need to make a permanent part of our elections moving forward. In doing so, we will broaden the number of people who are able to participate in our elections and feel more invested in their government."
In addition, Allen will chair a hearing Nov. 18 on legislation to implement ranked-choice voting in Washington.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.