Donald Trump has warned that “voting is an honour” as he continued attacks on states attempting to introduce postal voting at November’s 2020 election.
Mr Trump said on Wednesday that voters should not send back “a pile of stuff” – meaning a postal ballot – as he moves to discredit the voting method used worldwide.
“If you can you should go and vote, but voting is an honour. It shouldn’t be something where they send you a pile of stuff and you send it back,” said Mr Trump.
That came as the US president threatened to withdraw federal funding from two states on Wednesday after misunderstanding the difference between Michigan sending out postal ballots and applications for ballots.
Whilst he was later corrected, Mr Trump maintained that Michigan’s actions were illegal.
“This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State,” wrote Mr Trump on Twitter. “I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!”
Meanwhile, the president said Arizona’s attempt to introduce postal voting was an attempt to “cheat at elections”.
Mr Trump told journalists during Wednesday evening’s news conference that “If people mail in ballots there’s a lot of illegality”.
He added that “common sense will tell you it’s massive manipulation that can take place, massive.”
“You have cases of fraudulent ballots where they actually print them and give them to people to sign, maybe the same person signs them with different writing, different pens,” continued Mr Trump. “I don’t know, a lot of things can happen”
No exact evidence was provided.
Last month, the president commented that Republicans should fight against the introduction of mail voting because “for whatever reason, doesn’t work out well”.
The Fifteenth Amendment of the US Constitution states that voting in the US is a right, rather than an honour.
