Palm Beach, Florida
President Donald Trump voted in Tuesday’s Florida state House special election by mail at the same time as he steered on Monday that “mail-in voting means mail-in cheating.”
“You know, brought to my attention today that we’re the only country that does mail-in voting,” Trump stated at a roundtable on crime in Memphis. “Mail-in voting means mail-in cheating. I call it mail-in cheating, and we got to do something about it all.”
According to Palm Beach County data, Trump voted in the special election for House District 87, which incorporates his Mar-a-Lago residence, by mail earlier this month. Trump additionally voted by mail in the first for the election in January.
Democrat Emily Gregory will win Tuesday’s special election and flip the ruby-red district, CNN’s Decision Desk projected.
Trump has repeatedly questioned the veracity of voting by mail, claiming with out proof that it’s a important supply of election fraud. He has made the elimination of no-excuse mail voting a high precedence by the “SAVE America Act”, a federal elections overhaul invoice dealing with slim odds of passage in the Senate. The Supreme Court additionally heard arguments Monday in a case introduced by Republicans that seeks to tighten deadlines for mail ballots.
Olivia Wales, a White House spokesperson, stated in a assertion that Trump’s voter ID invoice “has commonsense exceptions for Americans to use mail-in ballots for illness, disability, military, or travel.”
“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, DC,” she stated. “This is a non-story.”
Trump shouldn’t be anticipated to be in Florida on Election Day on Tuesday.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, responding to a query at a press convention about Trump voting by mail, admonished the president, calling it “king-like behavior.”
“Rules for me that don’t apply, but not for thee – that’s his position,” stated Jeffries. “And this legislation, the so-called SAVE Act, has nothing to do with ensuring that elections are conducted with integrity.”
It additionally got here as a shock to some voters in Palm Beach on Tuesday that Trump voted by mail.
“Are you kidding me? I had no idea,” Republican voter Michelle Hall advised CNN in response to a query about it, saying voting by mail “is terrible unless you have a disability, you’re pregnant, you’re in the hospital, you’re military.”
She added, “If he’s against something, why are you doing it?”
It’s not the primary time the president has voted by mail, casting a mail ballot most lately in the Florida presidential major in 2020 whereas trying to distinguish his vote as an “absentee” vote.
“Absentee ballots are good, universal mail-ins when you get inundated with these things are bad and will lead to terrible things, including voter fraud, etcetera,” Trump stated on the time.
The president voted early in-person in the presidential major and in particular person in the final election at a polling location close to Mar-a-Lago in 2024.
This story has been up to date with extra info.
