A chorus of election officials, legal analysts and social media companies on Thursday rushed to condemn and counter President Trump’s suggestion this week that his supporters attempt to vote more than once, warning that doing so could constitute a crime and expressing fear that he was undermining the election system.
The pushback included pointed statements from an array of federal and local officials as well as direction action from Facebook and Twitter to attempt to limit the spread of the president’s misinformation.
Trump had urged supporters during an official White House event in North Carolina on Wednesday to send in a ballot through the mail and then attempt to cast another one at polling sites on Election Day in an effort to test the system. He has stated repeatedly that universal mail-in voting would lead to rampant fraud, despite evidence to the contrary.
Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, issued a lengthy statement emphasizing that attempting to cast multiple ballots would constitute a Class 1 felony and that soliciting someone to vote twice is also a crime. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, both Democrats, vowed to prosecute those caught trying to vote more than once.
“It is illegal in all 50 states and under federal law to vote twice,” said Ellen Weintraub, chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission. “As any federal officeholder or law-enforcement official should know. And there’s still no basis for the conspiracy theory that #VoteByMail will lead to a rigged election.”
Facebook announced it would remove a video of Trump’s initial remarks, and Twitter appended a notice to two of the president’s tweets, ruling that they violated the site’s rules about “civic and election integrity.”