President Donald Trump on Wednesday lashed out at two states seeking to embrace mail-in voting.
“Breaking: Michigan sends absentee ballots to 7.7 million people ahead of Primaries and the General Election. This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State. I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!” Trump tweeted.
The president tagged Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and the Treasury Department in a subsequent tweet.
Trump then added another state to his list of targets.
“State of Nevada ‘thinks’ that they can send out illegal vote by mail ballots, creating a great Voter Fraud scenario for the State and the U.S. They can’t! If they do, “I think” I can hold up funds to the State. Sorry, but you must not cheat in elections,” Trump tweeted later.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson fired back at Trump’s tweet.
“I also have a name, it’s Jocelyn Benson. And we sent applications, not ballots. Just like my GOP colleagues in Iowa, Georgia, Nebraska and West Virginia,” she tweeted.
All 7.7 million of Michigan’s registered voters will receive absentee ballot applications before the state’s Aug. 4 primary and the Nov. 3 general election, Benson said Tuesday, according to Reuters.
Michigan is led by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has been touted as a potential vice presidential pick by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
“By mailing applications, we have ensured that no Michigander has to choose between their health and their right to vote,” Benson said in a statement. “Voting by mail is easy, convenient, safe, and secure, and every voter in Michigan has the right to do it.”
Nevada is already embroiled in a dispute over its vote-by-mail plan for the state’s June 9 primary elections, according to Fox News.
The Clark County Election Department sent absentee ballots to inactive voters, which includes people who have moved or died. Clark County encompasses Las Vegas.
“What’s going to happen with these things, they’re not secured at all and there are thousands of them just sitting here,” Jenny Trobiani, a postal worker in Clark County, told Fox.
“This just seems fraudulent to me, something stinks here,” she said.
Republicans have said the Clark County elections commission is playing partisan politics with its actions.
“The Democratic county commissioners were working with the Democratic Party on some kind of backroom deal,” Rick Gorka, the deputy communications director for the Republican National Committee, told Fox.
“If Trump was accused of doing this, there would be an outrage.”
“Anyone can turn in a ballot they pick off the ground,” added Keith Schipper, the Nevada Trump Victory communications director. “This is a dangerous proposition.”
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