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Trump Opposes Vote by Mail
Excerpt of Transcript from President Trump's July 30, 2020 Press Briefing
Q Are we going to launch an effort to try to delay the election? Or was that just a trial balloon this morning?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, what I want to explain to people, but it doesn’t need much explanation — I mean, you look at article after article: “New York’s Mail-Vote Disaster,” “Tens of thousands of mail ballots have been tossed out in this year’s primaries. What will happen in November?” It’s a mess. This is done by Washington Post. Can you believe it? The Washington Post, of all papers. Fake news, but in this case, it’s not fake, it’s true.
This is done by the Wall Street Journal. Here’s another one, “Vote-by-mail experiment reveals potential problems within postal voting system ahead [in the] November election.” And you see what’s happening with so many different places. They’re doing even trial runs; they’re a disaster.
And I don’t want to see an election — you know, so many years, I’ve been watching elections. And they say the “projected winner” or the “winner of the election” — I don’t want to see that take place in a week after November 3rd or a month or, frankly, with litigation and everything else that can happen, years. Years. Or you never even know who won the election.
You’re sending out hundreds of millions of universal, mail-in ballots — hundreds of millions. Where are they going? Who are they being sent to? It’s common sense; you don’t have to know anything about politics. And the Democrats know this. The Democrats know this, Steve.
So, I want to see — I want an election and a result much, much more than you. I think we’re doing very well. We have the same pho- — fake polls, but we have real polls. We’re doing very well.
I just left Texas. And Biden came out against fracking. Well, that means Texas is going to be one of the most unemployed states in our country. That means Oklahoma, North Dakota, New Mexico are going to be a disaster. Ohio, Pennsylvania — disaster. No fracking.
I want to have the result of the election. I don’t want to be waiting around for weeks and months. And, literally, potentially — if you really did it right — years, because you’ll never know.
These ballots are missing. You saw Paterson, New Jersey. You saw many other instances. There’s tremendous litigation on that right now.
And that doesn’t include absentee. Absentee is different. Absentee — you have to work and you have to send in for applications. You have to go through a whole procedure.
Like, for instance, I’m an absentee voter because I can’t be in Florida because I’m in Washington; I’m at the White House. So, I’ll be an absentee voter. We have a lot of absentee voters, and it works. So we’re in favor of absentee, but it’s much different than millions of people.
In California, they’re going to send out tens of millions of voting forms. Well, where are they going to go? You read where postmen are in big trouble now. You read where city councils are in big trouble now. Voter fraud, all over the — the ballots.
So, no, I want to get — I want to be standing, hopefully, hand held high, big victory, because we’re doing things with our country that I think nobody else could have done...
June 22, 2020 tweets
Biden for President
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 22, 2020
Statement by Biden for President Campaign Manager Jen O’Malley Dillon
We are less than five months out from the most consequential election in generations, one that will in all likelihood be conducted in the midst of a pandemic. Voters should have more options for voting, not fewer, and no American should have to choose between their health and exercising their right to vote. That means expanding options for participation, including no-excuse absentee ballots, increased in-person early voting, and safe in-person voting on Election Day.Donald Trump and his Republican allies are already pursuing the exact opposite, with a program of voter suppression. Today, he has unfurled tweet after tweet pushing baseless conspiracy theories meant to discredit vote-by-mail. It is a well-worn page from his playbook of deception and distraction. Trump’s supporters didn’t show up for his rally in Tulsa over the weekend and his campaign blamed it on imaginary mobs of protestors, despite earlier in the day having bragged about how there wasn't any such disruption. What we are seeing today is more of the same: a desperate attempt to rewrite reality to revive this President's faltering re-election campaign. Trump and his aides look at the polls and see his support dropping because of his failed leadership. They are worried that those same supporters who didn't show up this weekend won't show up in November either, so they are trying to discredit the process in advance.
Our electoral process is much more important than the crowd numbers at a rally. Our campaign has sent letters to Twitter and Facebook demanding that this disinformation, which seeks to undermine faith in our electoral process, gets taken down immediately.
We will not stand by while Donald Trump recklessly undermines faith in our democratic process. Every day of this campaign, we will work tirelessly to ensure plentiful and safe opportunities to vote. Our campaign will stand alongside each and every American who seeks to have their voice heard at the ballot box and safely exercise their right to vote.
###
Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.
April 18, 2020
There’s Evidence of Vote-by-Mail Fraud, Despite Media Indifference
Under the guise of responding to the coronavirus crisis, Democrats have attempted to enshrine into law practices that are ripe for fraudulent voting. In her version of coronavirus relief legislation, Nancy Pelosi called for “mandatory early voting, mandatory voting by mail, and the legalization of California-style ballot harvesting.” This is in legislation that was intended to protect people who had lost their jobs in the virus crisis.
There are many examples of voter fraud by mail:
- In the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, at least nine people were charged with voter fraud involving mail ballots and “vote harvesting,” often victimizing the poor and vulnerable.
- In Troy, New York, a political operative was convicted for stealing and fraudulently submitting absentee ballots. He said he selected low-income voters because they were less likely to complain or notice they had been victimized.
- In Swissvale, Pennsylvania, one resident registered to vote seven times using the same address and received seven separate ballots in the mail.
“Democrats and the mainstream media always scoff at claims of voter fraud, but then completely ignore evidence from across the country,” said Brad Parscale, Trump 2020 campaign manager. “The obvious reason is that Democrats are just fine with the possibility of voter fraud. And many in the media just see the world their way.”
DNC War Room
April 9, 2020
Trump Lies About Vote-By-Mail To Suppress The Vote
During press briefings on the coronavirus pandemic over the last two days, Trump went on rants about vote-by-mail in which he made several false claims about this increasingly essential way to ensure Americans can exercise their fundamental right to vote.TRUMP: Mail ballots are “very dangerous” and “fraudulent in many cases.”
TRUMP: “Now, mail ballots — they cheat. Okay? People cheat. Mail ballots are a very dangerous thing for this country, because they’re cheaters. They go and collect them. They’re fraudulent in many cases.”
REALITY: There is no widespread voter fraud in the U.S., and millions of people already vote-by-mail without incident.
CNN: “Trump is lying about voter fraud. Multiple studies over the years have confirmed that there is no widespread voter fraud in this country. Additionally, Democratic and Republican state officials routinely oversee elections where millions of people vote-by-mail without systematic problems.”
NPR: “Tammy Patrick, a former election official in Arizona and now a current senior adviser with Democracy Fund, told NPR in 2018 that government officials should resist the urge to write off a voting method that can make voting more accessible (and in the current case safer) for thousands of people because of a few isolated incidents.”
TRUMP: Mail ballots collected by third parties are “forgeries.”
TRUMP: “The mailed ballots are corrupt, in my opinion. And they collect them, and they get people to go in and sign them. And then they — they’re forgeries in many cases. It’s a horrible thing.”
TRUMP: “You look at what they do, where they grab thousands of mail-in ballots and they dump it. I’ll tell you what — and I don’t have to tell; you can look at the statistics — there’s a lot of dishonesty going along with mail-in voting — mail-in ballots.”
REALITY: States can implement commonsense measures like ballot tracking, pre-paid postage, and ballot drop boxes to improve ballot security.
ProPublica: “While all types of voter fraud are rare, including mail-in ballot fraud, Patrick said, states must take necessary precautions. She said states should prepay for return postage, accept ballots that are postmarked on or before election day, and ensure there are convenient locations for voters to drop off their own ballots.”
NPR: “Experts, especially those with experience in the handful of states that vote completely by mail, say states can implement things like ballot tracking, as well as pre-paid postage and ballot drop boxes which eliminate the need for voters to hand over their ballots to a third party.”
TRUMP: Democrats didn’t raise safety concerns about in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic until Trump endorsed a candidate in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
TRUMP: “And as soon as I endorsed him, they wanted to move the election. They didn’t want to move the election. As soon as I endorsed him, the Wisconsin Democrats say, ‘Oh, let’s move the election to two months later.’ They didn’t mind having the election until I endorsed him, which is very interesting.”
TRUMP: “Now they talk about, ‘Oh, safety, safety.’ Well, it was 15 minutes after I put out an endorsement that they said, ‘We have to move the election.’ They didn't want to move the election before that. The other thing they wanted to do — which is crazy — at the end of the election, they wanted to have one week for proxies to come in or mailed ballots.”
REALITY: Democrats called for expanded vote-by-mail weeks before Trump’s tweets on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
SENATE DEMOCRATS on March 16: “The best way to ensure that this virus doesn’t keep people from the ballot box is to bring the ballot box to them. We must allow every American the ability to vote by mail. … On Monday, we will introduce the Natural Disaster and Emergency Ballot Act of 2020 to help election officials meet this pandemic head-on. Our legislation will guarantee every voter a secure mail-in paper ballot and help states cover the cost of printing, self-sealing envelopes, ballot tracking and postage.”
DNC AND WISCONSIN DEMOCRATIC PARTY on March 18: “The lawsuit filed Wednesday by the Democratic National Committee and the Wisconsin Democratic Party seeks to expand access to voting for those who are worried about their health but want to exercise their right to vote. The lawsuit aims to extend the election and mail-in voter registration deadline from Wednesday to April 3 and extend the deadline for absentee mail-in ballots to reach the municipal clerks' offices.”
DEMOCRATIC LEADERS on March 21: “States should automatically mail ballots to registered voters; voters should be able to mail back those ballots for free or with prepaid postage by the date of the primary; voters should also be able to drop off ballots at predesignated locations, as is the case in Arizona, or have someone else drop it off for them; and ballots should be accepted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day and received within 10 days of the election.”
TRUMP on April 3: “Highly respected Justice Daniel Kelly is running for the Supreme Court in the Great State of Wisconsin. … He has my Complete Endorsement!”
TRUMP: Trump claimed he opposed vote-by-mail because he wanted Americans to “proudly display” themselves when voting.
TRUMP: “It shouldn’t be mail-in voting. It should be: You go to a booth and you proudly display yourself.”
REALITY: Trump himself voted by mail this year.
TRUMP: “I think mail-in voting is horrible. It’s corrupt.”
Q: “But you voted by mail in Florida’s election last month, didn’t you?
TRUMP: “Sure, I can vote by mail for the —”
Q: “So how do you reconcile that?”
TRUMP: “Because I’m allowed to.”
TRUMP: Trump admitted that he opposed vote-by-mail because it hurt Republicans when more people were able to vote.
TRUMP: “They had things — levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”
TRUMP: “Republicans should fight very hard when it comes to state wide [sic] mail-in voting. Democrats are clamoring for it. Tremendous potential for voter fraud, and for whatever reason, doesn’t work out well for Republicans.”
REALITY: Trump’s not the first Republican to admit that voter suppression helps his party win elections.
Wisconsin GOP Congressman: “And now we have photo ID, and I think photo ID is going to make a little bit of a difference as well.”
Pennsylvania State House GOP Leader: “Voter ID, which is going to allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania: done.”
Pennsylvania GOP Chair: “We probably had a better election. Think about this: We cut Obama by 5 percent, which was big. A lot of people lost sight of that. He beat McCain by 10 percent; he only beat Romney by 5 percent. And I think that probably photo ID helped a bit in that.”
Copyright © 2020 Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in
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