Donald Trump Shoots Down Idea of Mail-In Voting for President Despite Coronavirus Pandemic

On Friday, President Donald Trump said that he does not support the idea of mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic. When asked by reporters at his latest COVID-19 press briefing whether he thinks states should prepare for that measure, the president said that he believes people will find a way to cheat the system if given that chance. He also said he believes the general election in November will go on with no issue.

On Friday, a reporter asked Trump if he thought that states should “prepare” for more cases of mail-in voting this fall. He cut in quickly, saying: “No because I think a lot of people will cheat with mail-in voting.” The president has previously talked a lot about voter fraud, even saying without evidence that he would have won the popular vote in 2016 if not for voter fraud. He went on: “I think people should vote with ID, voter ID. I think voter ID is very important, and the reason they don’t want voter ID is because they intend to cheat.”

“It shouldn’t be mail-in voting. It should be you go to a booth and you proudly display yourself. You don’t send it in the mail where people can pick up — all sorts of bad things can happen… by the time it gets in and is tabulated,” he concluded.

Mail-in voting and absentee ballots are already an option for many Americans in certain circumstances, and with the coronavirus pandemic raging on, more people than ever are expected to apply. According to a report by The Hill, democrats are already pushing for more funding to make mail-in ballots available, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Many states have already postponed their primary elections as well, or moved them to an all-mail election in some cases. Wisconsin is expected to go forward with an in-person primary election this Tuesday, although the state’s democrat Gov. Tony Evers has urged the state legislature to approve an all-mail voting system instead.

The coronavirus relief package signed into law last week also tackled the issue of the election, providing $400 million in funding for states to prepare for extra clean voting conditions. Democrats originally asked for $4 billion. In an interview on Fox & Friends on Monday, Trump said that those measures would have led to more people voting, which he suggested would hurt the chances of republicans in general.

“The things they had in there were crazy. They had things, levels of voting that if you ever agreed to, you would never have a Republican elected in this country again,” he said.

The National Conference of State Legislatures’ website has an up-to-date list of when each state’s primary election takes place. For the latest on the coronavirus pandemic, visit the CDC’s website.