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Donald Trump has suggested that people in the state of North Carolina should vote twice in the November election, once in person and once by mail, although doing so is a crime.
“Let them send it out and go vote,” Trump said in an interview with WECT-TV in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Wednesday when asked about the security of postal ballots. “And if the system is as good as they say, then obviously they won’t be able to vote” in person.
Voting more than once in an election is illegal.
“President Trump scandalously encouraged ‘North Carolinians’ to break the law to help him wreak havoc in our elections,” said state attorney general Josh Stein in a tweet. “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 carried out in November. “
US Attorney General William Barr told CNN that Trump “was trying to make it clear that the ability to monitor this system is not good.” When told that voting twice is illegal, he said, “I don’t know what the law says in that particular state.”
Barr said mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 election could be vulnerable to fraud, echoing an argument Trump has made to denounce the use of vote-by-mail. Trump has previously said that the voting method is susceptible to fraud on a large scale, although experts say that election fraud of any kind is extremely rare in the United States.
Voting by mail is not new in the US; Almost one in four voters cast their presidential vote in 2016 that way. A record number of mail-in ballots are expected for the election due to concerns about voting in person during the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump has accused Democrats of trying to steal the election by pushing the use of vote-by-mail. Trump’s reelection campaign has recently sued states like New Jersey and Nevada for expanding access to voting by mail.
Democrats have said that Trump and his fellow Republicans are trying to suppress the vote to help their side.
