President Trump on Thursday warned that results in the November presidential election may “NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED” in his latest effort to discredit mail-in voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic and preemptively delegitimize the results of the election.
In a Thursday morning tweet, Trump reiterated his baseless, tired claim that voting-by-mail leads to mass voter fraud, which he suggested will cause an inaccurate count of the results in the November election.
Because of the new and unprecedented massive amount of unsolicited ballots which will be sent to “voters”, or wherever, this year, the Nov 3rd Election result may NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED, which is what some want. Another election disaster yesterday. Stop Ballot Madness! https://t.co/3SMAk9TC1a
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2020
Minutes after Trump issued his tweet, which quote-tweeted conservative vote-monitoring organization True the Vote’s call to ensure that ballots have been sent to the military members, the President demanded that “big Unsolicited Ballot States” should instead encourage voters to show up to polling places.
The big Unsolicited Ballot States should give it up NOW, before it is too late, and ask people to go to the Polling Booths and, like always before, VOTE. Otherwise, MAYHEM!!! Solicited Ballots (absentee) are OK. @foxandfriends
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2020
@TrueTheVote There is a group of people (largely Radical Left Democrats) that want ELECTION MAYHEM. States must end this CRAZY mass sending of Ballots. Also, a GIFT to foreign interference into our election!!! Stop it now, before it is too late.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2020
The President’s Thursday morning tweets are just the latest episode in the Trump administration’s crusade against the expansion of mail-in voting ahead of the November presidential election, as it moves to politicize every aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic for Trump’s benefit.
Earlier this month, Trump encouraged voters in North Carolina to illegally attempt to vote twice — casting a ballot by mail and another in person — in the November election during an interview with a local reporter. Casting a ballot twice is considered a felony in many states, including the battleground state of North Carolina.
The President reiterated his illegal demand in a tweet issued the following week, which prompted Twitter to place a warning label for violating rules on election integrity by “encouraging people to potentially vote twice.” Twitter also put a warning label on Trump’s Thursday morning tweet, allowing users to “Learn how voting by mail is safe and secure.”
We placed a public interest notice on this Tweet for violating our Civic Integrity Policy, specifically for encouraging people to potentially vote twice. https://t.co/yy674OE26n
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) September 12, 2020
Attorney General Bill Barr attempted to bolster Trump’s unfounded claims of mail-in-voting leading to voter fraud, asserting that foreign powers could hijack mail-in elections by mass counterfeiting absentee ballots. However, Barr’s baseless claims were debunked by intelligence officials and his own Justice Department.
