President Donald Trump is sounding off again with his concerns about mail-in voting as he is suggesting a New York district’s real results of the election will never be determined.
Speaking with reporters at the White House on Friday, Trump mentioned the primary election for New York’s 12th Congressional District. According to Trump, the results of the election are still undecided.
The New York district mentioned found itself without the primary election results over a month after its Election Day. It is “at the center of this mess is a massive influx of mail-in ballots,” as The Washington Post reports.
“They’re never going to have the result of that election — never the correct result,” Trump told reporters, according to The Washington Times. “Thousands and thousands of ballots are missing.”
According to Trump, the United States could risk facing a larger problem if mail-in voting is expanded as he suggested election delays could take “weeks, months, maybe years” to determine.
The president also believes the election could be rigged.
“You won’t know the election result for weeks, months, maybe years after,” Trump said of mail-in voting at a national scale, adding, “Maybe you’ll never know the election results, and that’s what I’m concerned with. It’ll be fixed. It’ll be rigged. This will be catastrophic for our nation.”
Trump’s latest remarks about mail-in voting follow a string of previous concerns and tweets about the possibility of voter fraud despite there being no evidence of widespread voter fraud. In fact, on Thursday, Trump even suggested delaying the election due to his concerns about mail-in voting, as previously reported on IJR.
Mail-In Voting is already proving to be a catastrophic disaster. Even testing areas are way off. The Dems talk of foreign influence in voting, but they know that Mail-In Voting is an easy way for foreign countries to enter the race. Even beyond that, there’s no accurate count!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020
With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020
However, Trump’s remarks raise concerns about the circulation of misinformation regarding the upcoming election.
An assessment — compiled by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Arm, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — was released on Friday with details about the possibility of foreign threats that could contribute to the upcoming election being compromised.
According to CNN, the assessment appears to contradict Trump’s claims insisting “threat actors may mislead and confuse the public about the mechanics of mail-in voting, and leverage limited understanding regarding mail-in voting processes.”
The assessment read:
“Mail-in voting has already become an issue among partisan political voices, which makes it a target for threat actors to exploit,” the assessment read. “These threat actors may mislead and confuse the public about the mechanics of mail-in voting, and leverage limited understanding regarding mail-in voting processes, in order to cause chaos and provoke distrust in the election administration and electoral results.”
The general election is still set for November 3, 2020.