Donald Trump is back at it again with the bad advice, and on Wednesday while in North Carolina suggested that voters cast their ballot twice, once by mail and once in person, to test to see if the mail-in system is “as good as they say it is,” the Washington Post reports.
According to the report, Trump, who has long criticized vote by mail, was asked by local reporters whether he had confidence in the mail-in voting system.
“Let them send it in and let them go vote, and if their system’s as good as they say it is, then obviously they won’t be able to vote. If it isn’t tabulated, they’ll be able to vote,” Trump told WECT.
The impeached president repeated the sentiment while greeting supporters on the tarmac in Wilmington, telling them to mail in their ballot and then go vote in person.
“So send it in early and then go and vote,” Trump said, according to the Post. “You can’t let them take your vote away; these people are playing dirty politics. So if you have an absentee ballot…you send it in, but I’d check it, follow it and go vote.”
Of course, this is poor advice, considering intentionally voting twice is illegal (and the very type of voter fraud that Trump claims to be concerned about). In North Carolina and other states, doing so could result in felony charges.
Tim Murtaugh with Trump’s campaign brushed off the President’s comments, saying, “President Trump encourages supporters to vote absentee by mail early, and then show up in person at the polls or the local registrar to verify that their vote has already been counted.”
“It’s amazing that the media can go from insisting that voter fraud doesn’t exist to screaming about it when President Trump points out the giant holes in the Democrats’ voting schemes,” Murtaugh added, according to NBC News.