In a tweet Tuesday, President Donald Trump changed his views on mail-in voting for the upcoming election.
What We Know:
- President Donald Trump recently tweeted his support for mail-in voting for the upcoming election, specifically in the state of Florida, saying Republican governors helped build a strong and reliable secure from fraud. “Florida has got a great Republican governor, and it had a great Republican governor,” the president said.
- “It’s got Ron DeSantis, Rick Scott – two great governors,” he continues. “And over a long period of time, they’ve been able to get the absentee ballots done extremely professionally. Florida is different from other states.” Previously, Trump emphasized his disapproval of mail-in voting because he believed it encouraged fraud. During the Black Lives Matter protests, Trump tweeted that if people can protest, riot, and “break into stores and create all sorts of havoc,” they can vote.
- But now, Trump is giving credit to the Republican’s control of Florida for cleaning up the voting system. “Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida, the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True,” he 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 secretary later clarified what Trump meant by Florida’s voting system being “cleaned up.” She said that he was referring to the victorious settlement between an association of voting rights groups and state officials to expand early voting and voter education initiatives on top of preventing fraud during the upcoming election.
Trump recently asked New York to re-do several congressional primary races because of New York’s struggle with counting mail-in and absentee ballots like during the Democratic Primary race for New York’s 12th District between House Oversight chairwoman Carolyn Maloney and challenger Suraj Patel, Patel fell behind Maloney by roughly 3,700 votes and officials disqualified over 12,000 ballots for small errors like no postmarks.
