The president has spent months relieving opposition to voting by mail.
President Donald Trump, who almost daily criticizes the postal vote with false allegations of fraud, requested a mail-in vote for himself on Wednesday, as did First Lady Melania Trump, according to Florida election officials.
The president and his wife were sent ballots for next Tuesday’s statewide primary election in Florida less than a week before the vote, according to the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections.
The bureau on Wednesday sent the ballots to the Trumps, at its registered address at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, according to entries on its website. The pair also voted by mail in Florida’s presidential primary in March, according to election records.
Trump has been railing against votes by mail for months, claiming without proof that it will lead to widespread fraud.
States in the country have expanded extensive options for postal voting because Americans are afraid to go to the polls during the coronavirus pandemic.
For high ratings for disapproval, the president has called on his baseless concerns to cast doubt on the results of this November’s general election, in which he is running a second term.
Earlier this month, however, in the face of concerns about election results in his home state of Florida – where Trump registered to vote for a life in New York last year – the president reversed his position on voting by post there.
“They’ve been doing this for many years, and they’ve made it really great,” Trump said.
The White House has made a distinction between states that intend to send votes to all registered voters, which Trump opposes, and abstain if one cannot do so in person.
Trump and other senior administration officials, who have also made a practice of sending in their votes, have legitimate reasons they cannot be there, the White House has claimed.
Nationwide officials – Democrats and Republicans – have said the coronavirus pandemic will make voting in person difficult and potentially unsafe.
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