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WILMINGTON, North Carolina: United States President Donald Trump urged North Carolinians to try to vote twice in the Nov. 3 election, once by mail and once in person, causing a furor by seeming to they openly urge a possible act of electoral fraud.
“Send it in and go vote,” Trump said in an interview Wednesday (September 2) with WECT-TV in Wilmington, North Carolina. “And if the system is as good as they say, then obviously they won’t be able to vote” in person.
Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that voting by mail, expanded by some states due to the coronavirus pandemic, would increase fraud and disrupt the November elections, although experts say that election fraud of any kind is extremely rare in the United States.
Voting more than once in an election is illegal and in some states, including North Carolina, it is a crime not only to vote more than once, but to induce another to do so. The North Carolina State Board of Elections had no immediate comment on Trump’s comments.
READ: US officials see no evidence of foreign meddling in mail ballots
After his comments raised eyebrows and the ire of Democrats, the Trump campaign and the White House said Trump was not telling people to vote twice.
“The president is not suggesting that anyone do anything illegal,” White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told Fox News Channel on Thursday. “What she said very clearly is make sure your vote is tabulated and if it isn’t, then vote.”
Trump, a Republican, campaigned on Wednesday in North Carolina, known as a battlefield state because its population can lean toward either Republicans or Democrats and play a decisive role in presidential elections.
Ballots should be mailed to North Carolina on Friday.
READ: US Attorney General Says Vote By Mail Is “Playing With Fire”; experts say fraud is rare
State Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, responded on Twitter, writing that Trump, a Republican, had “scandalously encouraged” North Carolinians “to break the law to help him wreak havoc in our elections.” .
Stein wrote: “Make sure you vote, but DO NOT vote twice! I will do everything in my power to ensure that the will of the people is upheld in November.”
National opinion polls show that Trump, 74, is behind his Democratic rival Joe Biden, 77, the vice president of former President Barack Obama. Democrats accuse Republicans of trying to suppress the vote to help their side.
A record number of mail-in ballots is expected this year as people seek to avoid crowded polling places amid COVID-19.
Experts cautioned that such an increase will mean that a winner may not be clear on election night given the time it will take to count and verify all ballots. Nearly one in four voters cast their presidential vote by mail in 2016.
