Дональд Трамп ведет войну с голосованием по почте. Факты не подтверждают это

Translating…

Michigan Secretary of Declare Jocelyn Benson doesn’t apply the President of the United States on Twitter.

She modified into as soon as sitting in her basement set up of business ingesting breakfast Would possibly maybe well maybe also 20 when her team called to dispute her that Donald Trump had called Benson a “rogue Secretary of Declare,” accusing her of mailing ballots to Michigan voters (basically, they were pollapplications) and suggesting (incorrectly) that vote by mail would end result in fraud. Oh, and he threatened to retain funding from Michigan over the problem. (It’s unclear what funding he modified into as soon as referring to; the White Condo did no longer reply to a request for observation.)

What stood out in regards to the episode to Benson, a Democrat, wasn’t glorious how Trump had addressed her, the true inaccuracies, or the threat tucked into his tweet. It modified into as soon as that she modified into as soon as no longer frequently the glorious Secretary of Declare to carry a step love this. States loveIowa,Georgia,Nebraska, andWest Virginia—which Trump won in 2016, and which like Republican Secretaries of Declare—liketaken identicalactions in sending out applications for absentee ballots within the center of the coronavirus pandemic, at least for his or her primaries.

“This is nothing heaps of than me doing my job. And it’s the same policy, vote by mail, that voters on both aspects of the aisle comprise,” Benson says. “To me it modified into as soon as glorious disingenuous that whereas you are going to need Republican colleagues of mine doing the same element, that I catch singled out, in phase I’m certain because I’m a Democrat. I’m certain it’s related that Michigan’s playing a crucial, outstanding role on this three hundred and sixty five days’s election. It helps feed valid into a nationwide story that there are shenanigans taking place in states which could well be severe to the election. A counterfeit story.”

Sooner than the pandemic, five states (Washington, Utah, Hawaii, Oregon and Colorado) conducted all-mail elections, and three (California, North Dakota, and Nebraska, the latter with some exceptions)gave countiesthe capacity to resolve their principles,basically based on the National Convention of Declare Legislatures. Twenty-9 states plus Washington, D.C. have not any-excuse absentee balloting, that means voters carry out no longer like to give a reason to request an absentee ballot.

Nonetheless with the prospect of the coronavirus disrupting elections looming, others like moved to fabricate vote-by-mail more without affirm accessible, with some taking action for primaries and others for the final election. Three states (Michigan, Unusual Hampshire and California) like made modifications to present a boost to vote-by-mail availability in November. Michiganlaunchedthis can send out absentee pollapplications for the final election. Unusual Hampshire, which most frequently is no longer a no-excuse absentee balloting suppose, decided to permit absentee balloting in November if the pandemic is aloof a element, a resolution launched by thesuppose’s Republican governor. And Californiawill distributevote-by-mail ballots to all of its registered voters.

In most fresh weeks, Trump has seized on these modifications, turning a process designed to safeguard voters’ health and pollaccess valid into a political wedge, arguing falsely that this can end result in frequent voter fraud andcreating fearamong election experts that the President is undermining the legitimacy of the competition. The irony on this goes beyond the indisputable truth that Trump frequentlyvotes by mail himself.There would possibly maybe be itsy-bitsy proof, experts state, that both event advantages politically from allowing electorate to vote by mail, whereas locations that use it survey elevated voter turnout total. And it’s no longer glorious Democrats pushing the premise: Republican Secretaries of Declare and heaps of executives in purple states like also employed it.

“I’m bumfuzzled by the President’s objections to vote by mail. Republicans traditionally like completed comely if no longer better in heavy-mail scenarios,” says Michael Metal, a Republican strategist. “They disproportionately are usually utilized by older voters who disproportionately have a tendency to vote Republican.”

“It’s roughly a mystery why he’s picked this explicit fight to love at this explicit time with an endemic raging and a extraordinarily tight election,” Metal provides. “If I were the President, I’d be encouraging the Republican Party nationally and at some level of the nation to speculate within the infrastructure to guarantee that that that we can vote by mail successfully.”

You don’t like to set up abet very some distance to get an instance of vote-by-mail serving to Republicans. The Would possibly maybe well maybe also particular election in California’s 25th congressional district modified into as soon as mostly conducted by mail. Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom hadballotsand pay as you stagger postage-return envelopes sent to every registered voter. Andiagnosis by Political Knowledge Inc.,a voter data firm, confirmed that of the roughly 425,000 ballots sent to all voters, 34% were mailed abet in. Though more ballots went out to Democrats, Republicans returned them at a higher price. The seat, beforehand held by a Democrat,modified into as soon as won bythe Republican candidate, Mike Garcia.

Which isn’t to disclose vote-by-mail favors Republicans, both. Aappreciate printed earlier this spring by Stanford Universityexamined counties in a handful of states that implemented vote-by-mail applications and concluded vote by mail “does no longer appear to elongate both event’s vote share.” The researchers eminent it’s no longer easy to extrapolate their findings to wider use at some level of an endemic. Nonetheless on the total, “vote by mail doesn’t overwhelmingly advantage one event over the heaps of,” says Daniel Thompson, a PhD candidate at Stanford and the paper’s lead author.

In Michigan’s Would possibly maybe well maybe also 5 county and municipal elections, turnout modified into as soon as double past Would possibly maybe well maybe also contests, coming in at 25% of eligible voters, with 99% of these that cast a polldoing so by mail. Vote-by-mail modified into as soon as equally standard in Republican and Democratic communties, Benson stated. “The flexibility to vote by mail basically vastly elevated turnout at some level of the board.”

Regardless of this, a lot of Trump’s allies like adopted suit in attacking the process. The Republican National Committee, the National Republican Marketing and marketing campaign Committee, and the California GOP this weekfiled a lawsuitin opposition to Newsom and Secretary of Declare Alex Padilla over rising vote-by-mail in California, arguingit would invite“fraud, coercion, theft, and in some other case illegitimate balloting.” Complaints over balloting rights are playing out in a lot of states,including Texas, the set up Democrats alsosought to enlarge vote by mail.

Sam Reed, an recommend for vote-by-mail who served from 2001 to 2013 as a Republican Secretary of Declare in Washington, says suggesting that vote by mail will end result in voter fraud “is totally indecent.” He pointed to assessments in set up to abet some distance from it, love election team taking practicing from the suppose police on verify signatures. “Now we like basically tight programs,” Reed says.

Yet Trump has a history of pushing counterfeit narratives about voter fraud. He has lengthy propagated conspiracy theories of frequent voter fraud in spite of the indisputable truth that study likecame at some level of it to be uncommon. A voter fraud commission the President build in set up modified into as soon asdisbanded by January 2018with nothing to uncover for it.

The President’s tweets on voter fraud even resulted inTwitter attempting to truth testhim for the principle time on Tuesday. In step with a tweet claiming in phase that “Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be cast & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed,” the social media platformadded a collection updirecting customers to “Earn the info about mail-in ballots.”

Asked on Thursday by TIME whether or no longer the President’s comments on vote-by-mail were an effort to position groundwork to cast doubt on November election results, White Condo Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany spoke back: “No, he’s absolutely no longer doing that.”

With reporting by Brian Bennett.

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Write toLissandra Villa atlissandra.villa@time.com.

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