Trump Encourages Supporters To Try Illegally To Vote Twice

US President Donald Trump arrives for a roundtable with faith leaders, law enforcement officials, and small business owners at Gateway Church Dallas Campus in Dallas, Texas, on June 11, 2020. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm ... US President Donald Trump arrives for a roundtable with faith leaders, law enforcement officials, and small business owners at Gateway Church Dallas Campus in Dallas, Texas, on June 11, 2020. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP) (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

President Donald Trump urged voters on Wednesday to attempt to vote twice, casting a ballot by mail and another in person in an illegal move that further mobilizes his widespread attack on the legitimacy of voting in the upcoming elections. 

“Let them send it in and let them go vote, and if their system’s as good as they say it is, then obviously they won’t be able to vote. If it isn’t tabulated, they’ll be able to vote,” Trump told a local reporter in North Carolina during an interview when asked about mail-in ballots. 

The remarks add fuel to the President’s ongoing false narrative that the November elections will be rigged and that voting by mail contributes to overwhelming fraud. 

By suggesting a double vote, the President has essentially urged voters to commit an illegal act that in many states — including battleground North Carolina — is a felony.

The President echoed the directive to vote more than once while greeting supporters in Wilmington, North Carolina. He told them to send in their ballot “and then go in and vote.”

“So send it in early and then go and vote,” Trump said. “You can’t let them take your vote away; these people are playing dirty politics.” 

Trump urged the voters to send in their absentee ballot and then to “check it, follow it and go vote.” 

Trump has used his attack on mail-in voting as a tactical move to try to dissuade voters from casting their ballot and sow doubt about the legitimacy of an election that will use vote-by-mail to enable voters to mitigate concerns about the coronavirus by avoiding the polls on Election Day. 

Hours later, Attorney General William Barr when asked about Trump’s comments appeared to reinforce them claiming that the practice of voting by mail “is very open to fraud and coercion, is reckless and dangerous, and people are playing with fire.”

The remarks sharply contrast the sentiments of many Democratic and Republican lawmakers who have endorsed voting by mail as safe and secure. 

Last month, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) a lawmaker in a state where voting by mail is universal, touted the practice as likely “more secure” than voting in-person.

In an analysis of three states with universal mail-in voting from the 2016 and 2018 general elections, the Washington Post found that officials had reported a mere 372 possible cases of double voting or voting on behalf of deceased people out of about 14.6 million votes cast –a figure that represents 0.0025 percent.

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for eglot eglot says:

    Don’t mail in ballots because mail fraud! Even though I mail in my ballots…
    This election is rigged! Also, vote twice…
    Part of me hopes he refuses to concede, so that I can watch him be led out of the WH in cuffs…

  2. I STRONGLY support tRump and also encourage his cult members to vote twice. Not only will their vote not count-either one of them BUT it may jeopardize their constitutional right to vote in future elections. I’m all for thousands of brain dead republican voters losing their right to vote in any state in this county ever again.

  3. He’s not saying this as part of his attack on mail-in voting. He’s urging his supporters to vote twice simply so he can try to get enough votes to win. He doesn’t care if they get convicted of voting fraud. He’s trying to use them for his own benefit … again.

  4. Avatar for jtx jtx says:

    He is disgusting!

  5. Avatar for tao tao says:

    Of course they love him. He is clearly so much stupider than them.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

255 more replies

Participants

Avatar for ajm Avatar for austin_dave Avatar for pluckyinky Avatar for mondfledermaus Avatar for becca656 Avatar for chelsea530 Avatar for daveyjones64 Avatar for lastroth Avatar for thunderclapnewman Avatar for jinnj Avatar for tsp Avatar for lizzymom Avatar for castor_troy Avatar for khyber900 Avatar for brian512 Avatar for kelaine Avatar for bwillator Avatar for txlawyer Avatar for zenicetus Avatar for rascal_crone Avatar for c_stedman Avatar for filmknight Avatar for Thane Avatar for LeeHarveyGriswold

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: