floridafan
Verified User
President Donald Trump and his allies have been waging a disinformation campaign about mail-in voting, aggressively trying to delegitimize the practice that has a history in the United States dating back to the Civil War. The plan, as I’ve argued, seems to be to lay the groundwork for challenging mail-in votes or stopping them from being counted if it looks like he’s ahead with in-person ballots on Election Day.
But on Tuesday afternoon, the president suddenly changed his tune on the matter in one key state: Florida. He sent the following tweet:
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True. Florida’s Voting system has been cleaned up (we defeated Democrats attempts at change), so in Florida I encourage all to request a Ballot & Vote by Mail! #MAGA
The tweet references a dubious distinction that Trump has himself been trying to draw between absentee and mail-in ballots. In many jurisdictions, they’re the same thing, though absentee ballots can refer to a subset of mail-in ballots that require the voter to provide an excuse for not voting in person, such as being out of town on Election. But any concerns about mail-in ballots would apply to absentee ballots, so the president’s attempt to draw a distinction makes little sense.
It made even less sense in Florida — where, as it happens, the president votes by mail under suspicious circumstances — because Florida doesn’t have a special category of “absentee” ballots. Anyone who wants to vote by mail can do so
So why has the president changed his tune and given the green light to mail-in voting in Florida? MSNBC’s Chris Hayes had a plausible answer:
Allow me to translate: someone told him that he's scaring his elderly supporters in Florida away from vote-by-mail and it's gonna hurt him so hence this
But on Tuesday afternoon, the president suddenly changed his tune on the matter in one key state: Florida. He sent the following tweet:
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True. Florida’s Voting system has been cleaned up (we defeated Democrats attempts at change), so in Florida I encourage all to request a Ballot & Vote by Mail! #MAGA
The tweet references a dubious distinction that Trump has himself been trying to draw between absentee and mail-in ballots. In many jurisdictions, they’re the same thing, though absentee ballots can refer to a subset of mail-in ballots that require the voter to provide an excuse for not voting in person, such as being out of town on Election. But any concerns about mail-in ballots would apply to absentee ballots, so the president’s attempt to draw a distinction makes little sense.
It made even less sense in Florida — where, as it happens, the president votes by mail under suspicious circumstances — because Florida doesn’t have a special category of “absentee” ballots. Anyone who wants to vote by mail can do so
So why has the president changed his tune and given the green light to mail-in voting in Florida? MSNBC’s Chris Hayes had a plausible answer:
Allow me to translate: someone told him that he's scaring his elderly supporters in Florida away from vote-by-mail and it's gonna hurt him so hence this
