President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have requested mail-in ballots for Florida’s upcoming primary election despite the president disapproving of others voting by mail.
According to USA Today, the president’s request was made on Wednesday, the Palm Beach County elections website reveals.
Based on the website’s requirements, the ballot, which would be considered an absentee ballot due to the president being out-of-state, would have to be physically picked up since the deadline has passed to mail out ballots. Florida, however, in 2016 changed the wording of “absentee ballot” to “vote-by-mail.”
After it is received, it must be mailed to Washington, D.C., so the president and first lady can cast their vote, and sent back to Florida by 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday in order to be counted for the state’s primary election on August 18, the publication reports.
The president, who officially changed his address from New York to Palm Beach County, Florida, during his first term, has a history of voting by mail despite his continued attacks on the United States Postal Service (USPS).
Trump and the Republican National Committee have also filed lawsuits to block mail-in voting in multiple states.
Over the last few months, Trump has made several claims about possible voter fraud with no actual evidence that it exists for voting by mail. For weeks now, the president has become more vocal about his concerns regarding mail-in voting.
In July, Trump tweeted, “Mail-In Voting, unless changed by the courts, will lead to the most CORRUPT ELECTION in our Nation’s History!”
Mail-In Voting, unless changed by the courts, will lead to the most CORRUPT ELECTION in our Nation’s History! #RIGGEDELECTION
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 21, 2020
Although Trump has accused multiple states of sending out mail-in ballots without residents requesting them, many state officials have fired back arguing otherwise.
In fact, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson confirmed ballots were only sent to citizens who requested them. However, Trump has condemned universal mail-in voting due to the volume of ballots USPS could be faced with in the coming weeks.
Even in the midst of the pandemic, experts have also pushed back against Trump, as they have argued mail-in voting is “rarely subject to fraud.” Edie Goldenberg, a public policy and political science professor at the University of Michigan, insists mail-in voting offers no advantage to any one political party.
Goldenberg wrote in The Conversation, “The evidence we reviewed finds that voting by mail is rarely subject to fraud, does not give an advantage to one political party over another and can in fact inspire public confidence in the voting process if done properly.”
