President Donald Trump smeared mail-in voting on Twitter the morning after he admitted that he voted by mail himself, and urged Republicans to fight any effort to expand mail-in voting across the country.
With a deadly pandemic still raging throughout our nation, Democrats are calling for voting by mail, not just because it will give more people the ability to vote, but also because it allows people to stay at home rather than risk contracting the coronavirus by waiting in long lines.
Election Day in Wisconsin turned out to be an absolute nightmare as lines stretched for miles and people waited for hours to cast a ballot decked out in protective gear after Republicans forced the election to take place — aided by five cowardly Supreme Court Justices who ruled from home — rather than let it be postponed until June when everyone would be able to get to the polls.
It’s a voter suppression tactic that Republicans appear poised to use over and over again, including in the presidential election in November.
Trump has already let it slip that voting by mail would be a disaster for Republicans. But it turns out he voted by mail himself.
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“Mail-in voting is horrible. It’s corrupt,” Trump claimed on Tuesday during his daily press conference/campaign rally.
“You voted by mail in Florida’s election last month, didn’t you?” a reporter challenged.
“Sure I can vote by mail… because I’m allowed to,” Trump responded before telling an outright lie about mail-in voting.
“You get thousands and thousands of people sitting in someone’s living room signing ballots all over the place,” Trump said. “No, I think that mail-in voting is a terrible thing.”
Here’s the video via Twitter:
President Trump: “I think mail-in voting is horrible, it’s corrupt.”
Reporter: “You voted by mail in Florida’s election last month, didn’t you?”
Trump: “Sure. I can vote by mail”
Reporter: “How do you reconcile with that?”
Trump: “Because I’m allowed to.” pic.twitter.com/Es8ZNyB3O1
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 7, 2020
He doubled down on Wednesday morning and urged Republicans to block mail-in voting measures.
Republicans should fight very hard when it comes to state wide mail-in voting. Democrats are clamoring for it. Tremendous potential for voter fraud, and for whatever reason, doesn’t work out well for Republicans. @foxandfriends
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2020
The last sentence of Trump’s statement is a total lie. There’s no more potential for voter fraud by mail than there is by in-person voting. In fact, fraud is extremely rare in our elections unless you count Republican schemes to keep people from voting.
In addition, several states already have mail-in voting, including Utah, which has been a red state for years. If Trump’s claim was true, Democrats would have already taken over the state. No, what Trump and Republicans fear is that voter turnout would rise. Voter turnout in 2016 was 55 percent overall. In Utah, where mail-in voting is the norm, turnout was 82 percent. The GOP knows that conservatives are outnumbered if everyone can vote, and that’s why they oppose every proposal to expand voting and work to suppress it.
Featured image via screen capture
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