President Donald Trump, who repeatedly rolls against voting via mail, said Thursday that he is also concerned about personal voting rights, and wants to use law enforcement as pollsters on election day.
In a telephone interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News during the Democratic National Convention, Trump was asked if he intended to have pollsters on election day with the ‘ability to monitor, prevent fraud and cross-check whether these are registered voters, or not, or has there already been identification to know if it’s a real vote of a real American? “
Trump said, “We will have everything. We will enforce sheriffs and law and we will hopefully have American lawyers, and we will have everyone and generals of lawyers, but it is very difficult.”
Marc Elias, a top Democrat for suffrage, tweeted that such a move by Trump in court would be challenged by Democrats.
When Trump saw his question numbers slip, he increasingly, without proof, argued that the November election ran the risk of escaping fraud. Democrats are pushing for more expanded voting by post, a response to the pandemic that continues to plague the country. Trump, in response, has claimed that Democrats are trying to cheat the election.
NBC News has previously reported that the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee are recruiting an estimated 50,000 volunteers to act as poll guards – the GOP’s first national poll patrol operation in nearly 40 years.
Poll watching is a common part of elections – both parties do it – and the rules are regulated separately for each individual state.
But proponents of suffrage have told NBC that they fear Republicans will intimidate large-scale $ 20 million offensive and target minority voters who tend to vote Democratic and chill-out in a pivotal contest already fueled by the coronavirus pandemic.
Thursday proved to be the first time the president has suggested legislation be involved as well.
Trump has in the past complained about voter fraud, suggesting – with no evidence to back up the claim – that millions of fraudulent votes caused him to lose the popular vote in the 2016 election.
He has more recently complained about voting via mail, which is why many states are trying to go up because of concerns about coronavirus at polling stations.
Trump continued his attack on mail-in-vote with Hannity, claiming – falsely – that votes were sent to random people.
“They’ll send out 51 million votes to people who have no idea why it’s coming, who’s going to. Unfortunately, they might have a very good idea of the people they’re sending. Democrats and not to Republican territories. It could be the other way around, but I doubt it. It’s a very serious problem, “Trump said, predicting” This will be the most fraudulent election in American history. “
