Trump defends his mail-in ballot after calling vote-by-mail ‘corrupt’

President Trump on Tuesday dug in on his opposition to mail-in voting, dismissing the concept as “corrupt” despite having voted by mail himself in last month’s Florida primary.

Trump suggested there was a difference between voting by mail while living out of state and voting by mail while living in the state where one is registered to vote.

“Well, there’s a big difference between somebody that’s out of state and does a ballot and everything’s sealed, certified and everything else. You see what you have to do with the certifications,” he said, claiming without evidence that there could otherwise be “thousands of people sitting in somebody’s living room signing ballots.”

“No, I think mail in voting is a terrible thing,” he added “I think if you vote, you should go.”

The president voted by mail last month in Florida’s GOP primary, presumably for himself. Trump changed his address last year from New York to Florida.

Trump decried mail-in voting as scores of Wisconsin voters lined up at polling sites despite the coronavirus pandemic posing a public safety threat. He blamed the chaos on the state’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers, who signed an executive order to postpone the election but had it overturned by the state Supreme Court.

The president on Friday and again on Tuesday implied without evidence that the governor sought to postpone the election because of his endorsement for a Republican judicial candidate in the state.

Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington already conduct their elections by mail.

Democrats have pushed for expanded mail-in voting capabilities ahead of the November election, citing the potential for the coronavirus pandemic to upend typical in-person voting.

But Trump and other Republicans have bristled at the idea, citing the prospect of fraud. Trump has repeatedly made unfounded allegations of voter fraud, even launching a since-disbanded commission to investigate his claim that it contributed to his popular vote loss in 2016.