Trump calls for postal vote ahead of Florida local election despite baseless fraud allegations

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Pictures available via Getty Images show Trump was in New York on Tuesday.

CNN has reached out to Trump’s representatives for comment.

The request represents just the latest case of Trump voting through the same process he repeatedly tried to discredit throughout the 2020 election without evidence. Trump and then-first lady Melania Trump also requested postal ballots for the Florida primary election in August.

In the final months of his failed re-election, Trump asserted that postal voting was rife with fraud and an easy target for foreign electoral interference. These attacks often took on a partisan tinge, as Trump had said he believed his party would be hurt by the postal vote.

“With universal postal voting (and not postal voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE and FRAUDULENT election in history. It will be a great disgrace for the United States,” tweeted Trump in July. “Delay the election until people can vote properly, safely and securely ???”

In reality, there is no evidence that postal voting leads to fraud. Although rare cases of voter fraud from mail-in ballots do occur, it is far from a widespread problem in the US electoral system. Mail-order fraud is extremely rare in part because states have systems and processes in place to prevent forgery, theft and voter fraud.

Despite his public rhetoric, Trump has maintained that Florida’s voting system is secure, tweeting last year, “Whether you call it Voting by Mail or Voting by Mail, in Florida the electoral system is safe and secure, tried and true. Florida’s voting system has been cleaned up (we defeated Democrats’ attempts to change), so in Florida I encourage everyone to request a ballot and vote by mail! “

Asked about the apparent contradiction at the time, Trump appeared to imply that Republican-led states with existing mail-in voting programs were secure, but that Democratic-led states establishing or expanding mail-in voting during the pandemic were not.

“So Florida has a great Republican governor and they had a great Republican governor (before that) … and over a long period of time they have been able to have mail-in votes done in an extremely professional manner. Florida is different from other states, “Trump said at the time, before criticizing postal voting efforts in Nevada and New York, which were led by Democratic governors.

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