Trump Campaign Lead Lawyer, Critic of Mail Ballots, Voted by Mail Three Times

07/15/2020 USA


Jenna Ellis voted by mail in Colorado in 2012, 2013 and 2014, according to public records obtained by CNN’s KFile.

Colorado is one of the five states that conducts its elections entirely by mail. The state mails a ballot to each registered voter by mail and the voter returns a ballot cast in a signed envelope to the local county clerk’s office. (Voters can also vote in person at the polls if they prefer.)

Multiple studies have confirmed that electoral fraud is extremely rare, including voting by mail. One in four votes in the 2018 election was cast with mail ballots, and several states are preparing to mail ballots to voters in November, citing the safety concern of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ellis joins a growing list of Trump campaign and White House employees who have publicly criticized mail ballots and mail ballots, but privately cast an absentee ballot, including President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Second Lady Karen Pence, White House Adviser Kellyanne Conway, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany and Campaign Manager Brad Parscale.

Lara Trump-RNC's robocall called the vote by mail secure as the president criticized

In a statement, Ellis told CNN that Trump “is absolutely right that voting by mail is ready for fraud” and noted the “horrendous results” in the Pennsylvania and New Jersey elections, which used postal voting because of to the pandemic coronavirus.

In Philadelphia, officials identified 40 people who had returned a ballot by mail and then also voted in person. The votes were captured in time to avoid double voting and there was no evidence of fraud. In New Jersey, the attorney general charged four people with voter fraud in connection with a municipal election in May. Both states continue to count votes, but hundreds of thousands have been cast in each state.

Ellis told CNN: “I live in Colorado, and unfortunately my state is one of only five that are universal vote-by-mail states. Although President Trump and I agreed that it is a flawed method of organizing an election, and I will continue to work to change it, I will not let that discourage me from exercising my right to vote. ”

Ellis, a frequent substitute for the president, is also the public face of a Trump campaign lawsuit, along with several Republican congressmen and the Republican National Committee, filed against Pennsylvania counties over the state’s plans to use mail ballots for the general election this November on coronavirus safety concerns.

In a press release, Ellis said, without evidence, that moving toward a vote-by-mail system would create opportunities for fraud.

“Changing from an absentee voting system to one that encourages unsupervised voting by mail creates opportunities for fraud and encourages ballot collection where paid political agents attempt to collect and deliver loose ballots. This lawsuit seeks to restore integrity in the process and order the ability of campaigns to monitor the distribution, collection, and recount of all votes. All Americans, regardless of the candidates they support, should be concerned that our elections remain free and fair. ”

Ellis also criticized the House Democrats’ proposal to institute universal ballots for the elections. In an opinion piece, he said Democrats are trying to use the coronavirus pandemic as “an excuse and a pretext to remove many election guarantees” to implement universal mail ballots.

“They treat mail ballots as a panacea and call for the ‘bold democratic reform bill’ offered by House Democrats in Congress. But what they don’t tell you is that a change from one day to the next for universal mail Ballots will potentially deprive hundreds of thousands of voters of rights and that their so-called ‘bold proposals’ are simply an attempt to get more votes for their party, “wrote Ellis and his co-writer, Justin Clark, Trump’s chief political adviser. Bell.

Ellis and Clark were careful to note that “absentee ballots are a great way to vote for the many senior citizens, military and others who cannot get to the polls on Election Day” in their opinion piece. On Twitter, Ellis expressed support for the use of an absentee ballot if necessary, but still encouraged in-person voting. “Voting IN PERSON can and will happen in November! If we can stand in line at the grocery store and hardware store, we can stand in line to vote! If you need an absentee ballot, definitely vote that way (like some in DC I have to do it at home!), but SHOW AND VOTE TRUMPET! “she wrote.
On Twitter, Ellis frequently differentiated absentee ballots from mail-in ballots, but experts say absentee ballots and mail-in ballots, while different terms, are almost indistinguishable from each other in practice. Absentee ballots are requested by registered voters who cannot otherwise vote in person; mail-in ballots are simply mailed and may be considered absentee ballots or unexcused absentee ballots, according to state election law.
In a tweet, she wrote that the President “educated reporters” about the difference between “ABSENT VOTE (a registered voter requesting a ballot) vs. MAIL plans (sending millions of ballots into the ether without knowing if a person is dead, moved etc.) ELECTORAL SECURITY MATTERS! ”
In another tweet, he reiterated his definitions, writing: “Thread. Again, this is not such a complicated distinction, folks. Absent: A voter asks to have their own ballot mailed to them. Mail system: State mail millions of ballots to addresses and unverified recipients. ”

However, Ellis did not always publicly criticize mail ballots. In 2018, while Ellis was serving as policy director for the conservative Dobson Family Institute, she wrote a blog post encouraging Christians to register to vote and use statewide voting methods, including mail ballots, early voting, and the day of the vote.

“Finally, we ask that you VOTE on Election Day! Make sure you are registered correctly, and states have mail ballot, early voting, and voting day options,” Ellis wrote.

.

Tags

Designed by Tricksfast Solutions
© Copyright 2024, All Rights Reserved