President Donald Trump is continuing his war on mail ballots, having recently called them a greater threat than foreign interference to the upcoming election. Trump has regularly criticized then use of mail-in ballots, as he is convinced they will lead to voter fraud. He reiterated his stance during a recent White House news conference.
“Our biggest threat to this election is governors from opposing parties controlling ballots, millions of ballots,” Trump said. “To me, that’s a much bigger threat than foreign countries because much of the stuff coming out about foreign countries turned out to be untrue.” The Hill notes that Trump’s national intelligence officials have warned the president that China, Iran and Russia are all attempting to interfere with the 2020 U.S. election. Additionally, intelligence agencies — as well as a bipartisan Senate committee — have determined that Russia did in fact interfere with the 2016 election.
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Trump says the “biggest” threat to the election is “ballots,” as opposed to the pandemic that has killed thousands of Americans.
He also claims that foreign interference in 2016 was untrue, but even congressional Republicans found that the interference on his behalf happened. pic.twitter.com/YxgMmcLcaC
— The American Independent (@AmerIndependent) September 16, 2020
Coincidentally, while Trump has been openly opposed to mail-in ballots, it is actually a manner he personally uses to vote. According to USA Today, Trump and his wife Melania Trump both voted by mail in the 2020 Florida primaries. This is the second time that Trump has voted by mail-in ballot in the state, as he claims his official residence to be Palm Beach County, where his famous Mar-a-Lago club is located. Notably, the same week that his mail-in voting intentions were reported, Trump asserted that “there is nothing wrong with getting out and voting” amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
At a campaign rally in Nevada on Saturday, President Trump repeated unsubstantiated claims that mail-in ballots would contribute to widespread voter fraud in the November election. https://t.co/KtzQ97WsjU
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) September 13, 2020
The Trump administration also sent out mail-in ballots with Trump’s image on them to citizens in North Carolina, which caused some confusion. “The irony is very thick and definitely not lost on me. Trump has been saying mail-in ballots will bring fraud to the election but absentee ballots are legit,” said North Carolina resident Chandler Carranza. “Which is it? It can’t be both ways. I laughed because if the campaign actually took information from other times they have reached out to me, they’d know I won’t vote for Trump despite being a registered Republican.”
