Trump says Russia, China will sabotage mail-in voting system to interfere in November elections
Days after US intelligence community alerted that countries like Russia, China and Iran were targeting to undermine the presidential election, President Donald Trump feared that both Moscow and Beijing will make use of the mail-in ballot system if the upcoming poll was set to be determined by it. The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic across the country has prompted many to go for the mail-in voting instead of the physical one to avoid transmission but the president has been against it, claiming it would lead to a “rigged” election.
On Tuesday, August 11, Trump appeared on a Fox News’ ‘Hannity’ where he said the mail-in ballots would see people “grab batches” of ballots and cast their votes several times without a proper checking in place, leaving the entire process in a disarray. The Republican, who is eyeing a second term amid a number of challenges like coronavirus outbreak, economic downturn and race riots, said it was “just common sense” that voting by mail would cause widespread fraud even though research has not confirmed his viewpoint.
“This whole thing with this mail-in ballot, that’s a rigged election waiting to happen. It's rigged and everyone knows it because you can't send out 60 million mail-in ballots to everybody... who knows who's getting them?” Trump told the show’s host, Sean Hannity.
“The mailmen are going to get them and people are just going to grab batches of them. You talk about China and Russia, they'll be grabbing plenty of them. It's a disaster, it's a rigged election waiting to happen. It's just common sense.”
The intelligence recently said that while Russia is trying to undermine the presidential mission of presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, China is inclined to see Trump not returning to the White House again. Iran’s plans are similar to that of China, it was said.
Trump favors mail-in voting in Florida but not Nevada
Trump, who said the US shouldn’t allow the election to get rigged, has repeatedly attacked the idea of mail-in voting along with some of his administrative aides. However, Trump voted by mail in the presidential primary in Florida in March and recently vouched for the same in the Sunshine State saying the Republican-run state has the infrastructure to afford it.
Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True. 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
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2020
But Trump was less sympathetic towards Democratic-run Nevada as his re-election campaign filed a lawsuit against the state last week over its plan to offer mail-in ballots to all registered voters. The president’s team claimed that the people of American would not be able to trust the result of the November 3 election. Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak defended his state, saying: “During this global pandemic, I made a commitment that we'd do all we can to allow Nevadans to safely cast a ballot in the upcoming November election.”
"This bill will help prevent Nevadans from experiencing the long lines at polling locations they faced during the Primary election, which will protect their safety, safeguard their right to make their voices heard, and help reduce the spread of COVID-19."
Research done by several election experts has shown that voter fraud is very uncommon in general, including among those cast ballots by mail.