Voters in North Carolina were mailed absentee ballot request forms with Donald Trump‘s face on them, even though the U.S. president had long-criticized mail-in voting. According to CNN, citizens of the state were very surprised to get the forms, with Lincoln County resident John Herter telling the outlet that he asked his wife, “Is this a joke?” The forms sport a photo of Trump smiling, and verbiage that reads, “Are you going to let the Democrats silence you? Act now to stand with President Trump.”
Chandler Carranza — a Gaston County, North Carolina, resident — was one of the first to draw attention to the mailers, and spoke with CNN about how surprised he was to receive it. “The irony is very thick and definitely not lost on me,” Carranza told the outlet. “Trump has been saying mail-in ballots will bring fraud to the election but absentee ballots are legit. 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.”
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Got my mail in absentee ballot request form from @realDonaldTrump that will allow me to mail in my vote if I need to… but I can’t remember if this is a good thing or bad thing. Mail in is bad but absentee is good??? 🙄🙄🙄 pic.twitter.com/fbdgiq4hwc
— Chandler Carranza (@ChandlerC226) August 13, 2020
Notably, it was revealed on Friday that Trump himself will be voting by mail in the upcoming Florida primary elections. Trump claims the Sunshine State as his residence, and will be sending in his ballot for the second time there. This revelation came after many comments from the President, criticizing mail-in ballots as being a breeding ground for fraud. Last week, during a Fox Business Network interview, Trump blasted the Democrats for holding up the next stimulus bill over mail-in ballot funding, saying, “It’s their fault. They want $3.5 billion for something that’s fraudulent. For the mail-in votes, universal mail-in ballots.”
He went on to say, “They want $25 billion for the post office. They need that money so it can work and they can take these millions and millions of ballots. […] But if they don’t get those two items, then they can’t have mail-in ballots.” Trump then said that he too was keeping the bill from progressing, so that he could withhold mail-in ballot funding. “If we don’t make a deal, that means they won’t get the money and they won’t have universal mail-in voting.”
