President Trump threatened to “hold up funding” for Michigan and Nevada if the states follow through with initiatives for residents to cast mail-in or absentee ballots for upcoming elections.
“Breaking: Michigan sends absentee ballots to 7.7 million people ahead of Primaries and the General Election. This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State,” the president wrote on Twitter Wednesday morning. “I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!”
A little more than an hour later, Trump lashed out at Nevada for its plan to allow mail-in voting.
“State of Nevada ‘thinks’ that they can send out illegal vote by mail ballots, creating a great Voter Fraud scenario for the State and the U.S. They can’t! If they do, ‘I think’ I can hold up funds to the State. Sorry, but you must not cheat in elections,” the president wrote.
Trump has previously warned that allowing people to vote in ways other than in person could lead to rampant fraud — as Democrats pursue other alternatives because of health risks during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Mail ballots — they cheat. OK? People cheat,” he said last month. “There’s a lot of dishonesty going along with mail-in voting.”
His post comes a day after Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said the absentee ballot applications will be sent to all of the state’s 7.7 million registered voters so they can participate in the August and November elections without appearing in person, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Benson, a Democrat, said she made the move because of the risks associated with the coronavirus, which has killed nearly 5,000 people in Michigan.
She said the likelihood of people becoming ill because of the virus is still too great for people to show up as a group in the Aug. 4 and Nov. 3 elections.
Benson responded to Trump on Twitter to say she’s doing what Republican-run states are doing.
“Hi! I also have a name, it’s Jocelyn Benson. And we sent applications, not ballots. Just like my GOP colleagues in Iowa, Georgia, Nebraska and West Virginia,” she said in a posting.
Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske said county election officials began mailing out ballots for the June 9 primary election in early May because of health concerns related to COVID-19.
“Mail-in ballots provide Nevadans an accurate and valid way to vote this primary election in the comfort, safety and privacy of their own homes by simply mailing it or dropping it off,” Wayne Thorley, deputy secretary of state for elections, said in a statement released on May 1.
Cegavske said Nevadans who are not now registered to vote must do so by Thursday’s deadline to receive a mail-in ballot to the June primary.
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, in a tweet, said it is “inappropriate and outrageous” for Trump to threaten to remove federal funds during a pandemic when a state is “exercising its authority to run elections in a safe and legal manner.”
Trump’s re-election campaign is promoting mail voting options, but cautioned that all-mail elections are “an invitation to fraud.”
The president and first lady Melania Trump cast their ballots in Florida’s primary election in March by mail.
With Post wires
