President Donald Trump has made his views on election fraud very well known. Not only does he believe it happens regularly, but he also thinks mail-in ballots would increase the fraud dramatically.
However, if there's one thing we know about Trump, it's that he's rarely so consistent. And this view is no different.
A recently rediscovered video shows Trump getting frustrated with in-person polls and just giving up.
Access Classic: Donald Trump's Election Day Disaster – A Look Back (2004) | Access Hollywoodwww.youtube.com
In an old segment on Access Hollywood, Paul LeBlanc rides along with wealthy man about town, Donald Trump, in the far off year of 2004. It depicts Trump as he goes to different polling stations, finds he's not on any polling lists due to a technical error, and so he fills out an absentee ballot.
As Trump himself states:
"I just voted. At least you can say the Trumpster doesn't give up."
Let's put aside the part where he calls himself the "Trumpster" and focus on the hypocrisy.
Donald Trump found himself frustrated with the voting process and decided to cast an "absentee" ballot. This is surprising as Trump has railed against the process in the past.
Despite his claims, mail-in ballots do not have a noticeable increase in fraudulent ballots. Five states currently do voting "all-mail" elections: Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Utah.
Deployed military service members also have a long history of voting absentee and by mail. With the virus ravaging the USA, mail-in voting may prove to be the safer option to having people line up next to each other for hours.
Trump does try to justify this by claiming that absentee ballots are different from mail-in ballots
This is, of course, complete nonsense.
Absentee ballots and mail-in ballots are the same thing, done with similar processes.
This claim was made despite the fact Trump told reporters that he would be voting absentee in the 2020 election. Trump has consistently tried to create a distinction between absentee vs mail-in voting.
Absentee voting is synonymous with mail-in voting. In this instance, you are registered to vote and receive a ballot in the mail before the election. You fill it out and mail it back in.
The only real difference is your reason. It's usually called an absentee ballot when you are physically unavailable to go to a poll, such as if you're deployed or you're the President and live in the White House temporarily.
Mail-in ballots are available in some states and can be done for pretty much any reason. In both cases, you're verified as much as any other process to receive your voter ID registration before being registered to vote by mail.
Basically, complete nonsense.
As the election draws closer, expect Trump to ramp up his attacks on the mail-in process. He's declared it rife with fraud and seems to be preparing a defense of a rigged election in the event he loses.
Much as with any situation we find ourselves in, we need to listen to the experts. Doctors are recommending we socially distance as much as possible and our dwindling polling stations being overrun with thousands of people is probably not the best place for that.
If you don't have access to mail-in voting, you can find your representatives here. You can request greater access to vote-by-mail to allow your community to vote safely.
