At an unrelated White House event in May, Donald Trump repeated a familiar attack against mail-in ballots — just “the nature of it” is “corrupt,” the president falsely claimed — before saying that local election officials had asked for his identification when he “went to vote in Florida.” The Republican shared a related anecdote a few weeks ago.

“I went to vote,” Trump said, before quoting the person who checked him in. “Sir, may I please see your identification? Sir, I’m so embarrassed. I know you’re Trump. Please, do you have some identification? I don’t want to lose my job.” After boasting that he had “some kind of a card” in his pocket, he again quoted the local election official. “‘Thank you, sir. I’m so embarrassed.’ She kept apologizing.’ I said, ‘Don’t apologize. You’re doing your job.’”

The president didn’t say when exactly this alleged conversation took place, but there’s reason for skepticism. In recent election cycles, Trump has repeatedly voted by mail, despite his insistence that voting by mail is an indefensible and corrupt scourge on the nation, and despite his dubious anecdotes about his in-person experiences.

As Primary Day arrives in the Sunshine State, his streak is ongoing. Politico reported:

President Donald Trump voted by mail in Florida’s Republican primary, according to local voting records, even as he continues to rail against mail-in voting with wide-ranging allegations of fraud.

Voting records from Palm Beach County show the president requested his ballot in late July and it was returned on Aug. 13. This is not the first time that Trump has voted by mail in his adopted home state. He voted by mail in a special election in Palm Beach County earlier this year.

A White House spokesperson told Politico, “As everyone knows, the president is a resident of Palm Beach and participates in Florida elections, but he obviously primarily lives at the White House in Washington, D.C. This is a non-story.”

Well, that’s certainly one perspective, but it’s hard to brush off the circumstances that easily.

Trump’s criticisms of mail-in voting haven’t exactly been mild. The president has spent years condemning the system with baseless conspiracy theories, insisting that it is inherently “corrupt” based on evidence that does not exist.

“Mail-in voting means mail-in cheating,” he said in March. Months later, the Republican said he opposes postal balloting because “most great Americans want to go and vote.”

If this sounds at all familiar, it’s not your imagination. In Trump’s first term, the president also condemned mail-in balloting as “horrible” and “corrupt,” even as he continued to vote by mail.

Pressed on the conflict between his position and his record, the Republican told reporters in April 2020, “Sure, I can vote by mail — because I’m allowed to.”

That’s true, though millions of Americans are also allowed to, and Trump is desperately trying to stop them. The president has spent the last several months demanding that congressional Republicans approve a sweeping voter suppression package that would, among other things, limit mail-in voting to those the White House deems worthy.

I put together this image to help summarize matters.

Let’s also not forget that while Trump votes by mail, his administration is also trying to get judicial approval for a radical executive order on mail-in voting in the hopes that it will be enforced during this year’s midterm elections. (That order has been paused by a federal judge, though the appeals process is still unfolding.) Watch this space.

The post Trump thinks voting by mail is a corrupt scourge on the nation — except when he does it appeared first on MS NOW.

Author: Source Author

From MS Now.