As Trump Attacks Mail-In Voting, GOP Lawmakers Say They’ve Voted By Mail
Republican lawmakers say they have confidence in voting by mail even as President Donald Trump continues trying to discredit vote-by-mail systems, falsely claiming they are “corrupt” or “fraudulent.”
“I think we’ve actually had success with mail-in voting in my state. I’ve voted remotely before and I haven’t had any challenges,” Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) told HuffPost on Tuesday.
“No, I’m not concerned about mail-in voting in Florida,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said on a campaign call over the weekend.
Trump has ratcheted up his attacks on broad mail-in voting in recent weeks as some states have moved to expand mail-in voting eligibility because of the coronavirus outbreak, and as polls have continued to show him trailing presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden ahead of November’s election.
On Monday, Trump suggested the Democratic primary in New York’s 12th Congressional District should be “rerun” because of lengthy delays in counting mail-in ballots. Nearly six weeks after the primary, all of the votes have yet to be counted.
“I think I can say right here and now I think you have to rerun that race because it’s a mess,” Trump said, nearly a week after he suggested delaying the November presidential election because of expected large numbers of mail-in ballots. The president cannot act on his own to move the date of the election.
Democrats and voting experts say they’re increasingly concerned Trump appears to be laying the groundwork to contest the legitimacy of the presidential election if he loses. The strategy could pour gasoline on a highly combustible situation, especially because there is likely going to be a long wait to get election results.
In Michigan, for example, election officials reported problems with the delivery of absentee ballots ahead of Tuesday’s primary in the state. They also reported extremely high demand for absentee ballots. As of Monday, 2,066,000 absentee ballots had...
