Trump, First Lady Request Vote-by-Mail Ballots in Florida
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump filed their requests for vote-by-mail ballots in Florida's primary election.
The vote-by-mail submission came despite Trump's frequent attacks on voting by mail.
The county's election office received the completed vote-by-mail ballots on Monday; an office spokesperson told The Hill.
Both ballots were dropped off in person instead of being returned to the county by mail, and Wendy Sartory Link told the Palm Beach Post. According to Link, the ballots will be counted on Tuesday.
Trump asked a designated representative for the vote-by-mail request and scheduled them to be picked up last week. The completed ballots were dropped off early, beating the 7 p.m. Tuesday deadline.
The Trumps also submitted vote-by-mail ballots last March for Florida's presidential primary. They switched their permanent address to Palm Beach County, where the president's Mar-a-Lago resort is located, reported CNN.
Records at the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections website showed that the ballots were mailed to the resort, as it was what Trump listed as his residence last year.
Absentee Voting vs. Universal Mail-In
President has drawn a line distinguishing absentee voting and universal mail-in voting. He slammed the mail-in way as opening risks for the election to run widespread fraud, despite lack of evidence.
He said absentee ballots are good by universal mail-ins can "lead to terrible things."
In an interview with Fox Business Network, Trump said that if the U.S. Postal Service doesn't get the money needed for universal mail-in voting, "they just can't have it."
In a tweet earlier this month, he said: "Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True." He added that the voting system in Florida "has been cleaned up."
He encouraged those in Florida to request a ballot and vote by mail.
To keep themselves safe during the coronavirus pandemic, American voters are turning to mail-in voting.
There have been 174,444 Palm Beach County voters who cast their ballot by mail as of noon on Tuesday. This is a good 83% of those who had voted.
With this new number, mail-in ballots are now about 20,000 higher than in the 2018 or 2016 elections.
Florida Doesn't Have Universal Vote-by-Mail
There are only nine states that offer universal vote-by-mail ballots, which are automatically mailed to registered voters. According to the New York Times, five states had already been offering it before the coronavirus pandemic.
Florida is not one of these states.
Prior to 2002, Florida voters had been required to provide an excuse to get an application for a vote-by-mail ballot. As the U.S. is in the middle of a pandemic, coming up with an excuse is no longer needed.
But voters will still need to get their applications themselves, as they are not mailed in automatically.
According to the Palm Beach Post, the Florida legislature changed the ballot name from "absentee" to "vote-by-mail" back in 2016. This was to avoid confusion among ballots.
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