Despite being a vocal opponent of mail-in voting, President Trump voted in Tuesday’s Florida state House special election by mail.
David Bateman, professor of government and policy at Cornell University, says voting by mail used to be a bipartisan issue.
Bateman says:
“Voting by mail used to be a bipartisan issue, a broad agreement that voting should be made easier. It has arguably become a practice more common among Democrats, and so Trump wants it gone. That's the whole rationale.
“It is no surprise that Trump is hypocritically attacking mail-in balloting while also using it. He's not worried about fraud, he's not even worried about the fact that USPS underfunding has generated an on-time delivery rate crisis—which wouldn't be an issue in states where ballots can be counted if received late but postmarked before the election. He's worried because he believes that mail-in ballots might be more favorable to Democrats than Republicans.
“It is also the rationale for the SAVE Act, which will not prevent a single fraudulent vote from being cast, since vanishingly few ever are, but will make it somewhat harder for Democratic constituencies to vote. That's also the reason for the idea circling around Trump aligned actors of sending ICE to the polls. It is a naked power grab. It is given urgency by the likely losses in the midterms, with last night's results in Florida more evidence of the coming wave. But it reflects a deeper awareness that the Republican Party has - 2024 notwithstanding - a minority and declining share of the electorate.”
