Trump reverses, encourages vote by mail — in Florida
Trump reverses, encourages vote by mail — in Florida
BY MORGAN CHALFANT - 08/04/20 01:24 PM EDT 143
https://thehill.com/sites/default/fi...?itok=x5CYui2o
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President Trump on Tuesday encouraged voters in Florida to vote by mail, saying the state's election system is “safe and secure” after weeks of assailing efforts to expand mail-in voting by claiming that it would invite large-scale fraud.
The remarks are a reversal for Trump, who has repeatedly suggested that increased mail-in voting could lead to voter fraud, despite a lack of evidence that mailed-in ballots lead to criminal activity.
Republicans have grown worried that Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting could actually suppress the GOP vote in the upcoming election.
“Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True,” Trump tweeted. “Florida’s Voting system has been cleaned up (we defeated Democrats attempts at change), so in Florida I encourage all to request a Ballot & Vote by Mail! #MAGA.”
Trump’s tweet marked a change in tune for the president, who just last week suggested delaying the November election – something the president does not have the power to do – as he leveled new attacks on mail-in voting. He claimed at the time that 2020 would be the “most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history" if universal mail-in voting were implemented. Experts say that there is no evidence of meaningful fraud in mail-in voting, despite the president’s frequent attacks.
Trump on Tuesday appeared to be referencing last month’s settlement between voting rights groups and the state of Florida over a suit in which the groups sought changes to the deadline for mail-in ballots.
Florida is an important battleground state that Trump won in 2016. Recent polls have shown the president trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in Florida, including a Quinnipiac poll released in late July that found Biden with a double-digit lead over the president in the Sunshine State.
Several states have expanded mail-in voting in order to allow citizens to cast ballots during the coronavirus pandemic without going to the polls, where they could be at risk of catching or spreading the virus.
Trump, however, has assailed some states that have expanded mail-in voting. On Monday, he threatened a legal challenge to Nevada’s new law that would automatically send mail-in ballots to eligible voters during the pandemic. Trump has previously threatened federal funding to Michigan and Nevada over efforts to expand mail-in voting. Both states are battlegrounds that are run by Democratic governors.
The president calls the state of Florida home after changing his place of residence last year. Trump himself voted by mail in the Florida primary this year and has also done so in New York, his previous place of residence.
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