One day after President Donald Trump encouraged North Carolinians to attempt to vote twice this November, he delivered a convoluted appeal to both mail-in a ballot and appear at polling places in person on Election Day, even as local election officials warned of potential illegality.
Trump has frequently criticized mail-in voting as ripe with fraud, an argument that not only lacks evidence and is at odds with his campaign's attempt to get his supporters to cast their ballots by mail. Democrats have been pushing to expand access to mail-in voting in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, a move they say is necessary to ensure safety.
On Wednesday, Trump suggested that his North Carolina supporters should test the security of their state's system by mailing a ballot and then trying to vote in person on Election Day.
The White House later attempted to walk back Trump's comments, saying he was encouraging his supporters to verify that their mail-in ballot had been counted, not to attempt to cast duplicate ballots.
In a series of posts on Twitter on Thursday, Trump appeared to be encouraging all of his supporters to test the system by mailing in ballots and then visiting polling places.
Trump, writing on Twitter, called on supporters to return their ballots "as EARLY as possible."
Then, he said, "on Election Day, or Early Voting, go to your Polling Place to see whether or not your Mail In Vote has been Tabulated (Counted)."
He said if the voter is told their ballot had already been tabulated, "you will not be able to Vote & the Mail In System worked properly."
But, if the voter is told their ballot has not been counted, they should vote in-person at their polling place. Trump argued if voters cast two ballots, election officials will not count the mailed-in ballot.
"YOU ARE NOW ASSURED THAT YOUR PRECIOUS VOTE HAS BEEN COUNTED, it hasn’t been 'lost, thrown out, or in any way destroyed,'" he wrote on Twitter.
Trump's statements appear to ignore the complexity of the laws governing the voting process. Each state has its own laws dictating how elections should be conducted, when absentee votes are tabulated and how officials verify that someone isn't attempting to vote twice.
In a number of states, officials do not begin to count mail-in ballots until Election Day or in the immediate days that precede it, though lawmakers in some states are trying adjust that timeline. In some states, officials would not be able to verify whether a mail-in ballot had been tabulated. Many states offer voters the ability to track their mail-in-ballots online.
"Trump yesterday encouraged his supporters to commit voter fraud," Reyna Walters-Morgan, Democrat's director of voter protection and civic engagement, told NBC News in a statement. "Let’s be clear: Voting by mail is a safe and secure way for Americans to participate in our democracy — and Trump should be working to make it easier to vote, not harder."
"We know Trump will attempt to spread misinformation with the goal of weakening trust in our democracy because what he fears most in November are millions of Americans at the ballot box holding him accountable," she continued.
For months, Trump has questioned the legitimacy of mail-in-voting and has already claimed the prevalence of mail-in-balloting will lead to a "rigged" election against him and benefit Democrats. There is no clear evidence showing either party gains an edge with mail-in voting, though recent polling has shown a higher proportion of Democrats plan to cast ballots by mail than Republicans this fall.
Voting twice in North Carolina is a class 1 felony, Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said in a statement. A voter who has cast an absentee ballot and then tries to vote at their polling place will be given a provisional ballot, she said. If officials determine the absentee ballot hasn't be tabulated, then the provisional ballot will be counted.
"It is illegal to vote twice in an election," Brinson Bell said. "If a voter tries to check in who has already voted, they will be prevented from voting a regular ballot."
Brinson Bell said if a person requests an absentee ballot but decides they would rather vote in person, they can. But they should discard the absentee ballot.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump have both requested to vote-by-mail in their home state of Florida this year.
The president made similar claims about mail-in-balloting and fraud during his past campaign.
In Iowa, a woman was charged in early 2017 with having voted twice. A Trump supporter, she told police she believed his claims about a rigged election and thought her initial ballot would have the vote changed to 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
