July 28, 2020 by David Silverberg
With mail-in voting already under way, the Florida Republican Party is trying to overcome President Donald Trump’s vociferous disparagement of mail-in voting by deceptively hiding his attacks on the practice.
In printed flyers delivered to Southwest Florida voters encouraging Republican mail-in voting, the Party tries to make Trump seem like an advocate of voting by mail by blurring the lines of tweets he issued on June 28 and July 10.
The tweets were contradictory, drawing a distinction between mail-in ballots and absentee ballots. In fact they are the same.
Quoting a June 28 tweet, the flyer quotes Trump tweeting (capitalization his): “Absentee Ballots are fine. A person has to go through a process to get and use them.” Blurred out is the rest of the tweet: “Mail-In Voting, on the other hand, will lead to the most corrupt Election is USA history. Bad things happen with Mail-Ins. Just look at Special Election in Patterson, N.J. 19% of Ballots a FRAUD!”
The June 28 Trump tweet as printed on the Republican flyer.
The Trump quote as actually tweeted.
In the July 10 flyer, Trump’s tweet (punctuation his) is quoted as: “….Absentee Ballots are fine because you have to go through a precise process to get your voting privilege.” Blurred out is the rest of the tweet: “Not so with Mail-Ins. Rigged Election!!! 20% fraudulent ballots?”
The July 10 Trump tweet as printed on a Republican flyer.
The July 10 Trump quote as actually tweeted.
In Southwest Florida mail-in balloting for the Aug. 18 primary is already heavy. According to the Lee County Supervisor of Elections, as of this writing, 43,963 ballots have already been cast. Of those, Republicans have mailed in 21,132 ballots and Democrats 15,572. Non-party affiliated voters have returned 6,995 and “others” 264.
In Collier County, 27,457 mail-in ballots have been returned. Republicans have returned 15,291, Democrats 7,928, non-party affiliated voters 4,077 and others, 155.
[caption id="attachment_1299" align="alignleft" width="182"] One of the flyers mailed out by the Florida Republican Party[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1302" align="alignright" width="181"] One of the flyers mailed by the Florida Republican Party.[/caption]
One of the flyers mailed out by the Florida Republican Party
One of the flyers mailed by the Florida Republican Party.
In the two tweets quoted and in others, Trump has argued that mail-in voting is “bad, dishonest and slow,” will lead to massive fraud and a “rigged election.” Nonetheless, mail-in voting is crucial to Republican hopes of success.
Election officials are expecting a massive influx of mail-in balloting this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.