LAS VEGAS — Miguel Narvaez, voting in Las Vegas on Tuesday, was stunned when he showed up to drop off his mailed ballot, only to learn that he did not have to show ID to have it cast.
He voted in person instead, but was again miffed that he was not asked for ID, just a signature to be compared with election records to verify his identity.
“They should just cancel mail-in ballots. Get rid of them. It’s a bad idea,” Mr. Narvaez told The Washington Times.
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The voting played out amid an unprecedented election crusade by President Trump, who assailed mail-in ballots, noncitizen voting and the time it takes to count the votes.
Turnout appeared to be heavy, with early voting easily outstripping the 2022 midterm elections.
Aside from scattered reports of ballot printing and voting machine bungles, no signs of widespread problems appeared as of the afternoon.
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Still, Mr. Trump’s message about problems with the U.S. voting system has begun to sink in.
“I’ve seen people get mail-in ballots who were not here legally. It creates easy access to voting,” Mr. Narvaez said.
In Troy, Michigan, a voter who identified himself only as Mike said he was dismayed by the idea of early or mail voting, saying it was a small sacrifice to show up on Election Day and ensure votes are cast properly.
“Civilization has a cost,” he said. “If there’s any potential for a problem, then I want to avoid that.”
It’s not just Republicans.
As she cast her ballot for Democrats, a 68-year-old woman in Enterprise, Nevada, said she feared dirty tricks.
“Elections have been rigged, votes have been flipped,” said the woman, who gave only her first name, Linda.
She turned out to vote primarily to take a stand against Mr. Trump but said she agrees with him on the need for voter ID.
“It’s necessary to prevent cheating,” she said. “There’s already too much cheating.”
She received her ballot by mail and was dropping it off at a polling place, where she did not have to show ID, but her signature would be matched to verify identity.
Olivia Walraven, 30, a stay-at-home mom also voting in Troy, acknowledged the president’s concerns but said she was comfortable with the convenience mail balloting offered some voters.
“I don’t think anything’s ever fair. We’re doing our best,” she said.
Mr. Trump has argued that there are too many opportunities for mischief, but local election workers said Tuesday they did not see any evidence to back up the president’s fears.
“I’ve been working elections for about 14 years now, and I haven’t seen any fraud,” said Juzer Hasta, a presiding judge at a polling location in Irving, Texas. “In my opinion, the way that it is decentralized, there are so many people involved that it would be rather difficult to have any kind of fraud.”
A Democratic precinct captain handing out literature in Montgomery County, Maryland, said Mr. Trump needed to butt out.
“Our elections are not corrupt,” said Susan Heltemes, as she handed out literature at a Chevy Chase polling station. “People who are not citizens don’t vote. They don’t register. They know there are ramifications. And it’s yet another distraction.”
Mr. Trump’s hopes of erecting a legal framework to block noncitizen voting failed in the federal courts, where a battalion of judges shut him down.
First to go was his plan to have the U.S. Postal Service refuse to deliver ballots that federal officials attributed to noncitizens. His bid to block some 20,000 ballots mailed to voters in California whom the Homeland Security Department identified as potential noncitizens also fell.
By Monday night, judges had also forbidden him from sending Homeland Security agents to homes to pursue illegal voting cases, and had restricted the government from sending lists of suspected noncitizens to states.
Mr. Trump’s broader complaints about mail-in voting seemed to work chiefly on Republicans.
As of Monday night, nearly 26.6 million mail ballots had been cast, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab.
That already exceeds the 25.4 million cast in 2022, and the tally will grow as some states welcome mailed ballots for weeks to come.
Early in-person voting was even more popular, with nearly 32 million votes banked Monday, up from about 20.5 million in 2022.
The share of the early vote among Democrats and independents ticked up, while Republicans’ share fell from 33.8% of the early vote in 2022 to 31.4% this year.
• Jeff Mordock, reporting from Nevada; Susan Ferrechio, reporting from Texas; Seth McLaughlin, reporting from Michigan; and George Caldwell, reporting from Maryland, contributed to this article.
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