President Trump plans to file a new lawsuit against voting by mail, which he said could allow Democrats to cheat in the upcoming elections.
In an interview Monday, Trump told conservative talk show host Michael Savage, “We’re suing, and we’re filing another big lawsuit, I think, on Friday, and I think we have a good case.”
The Republican National Committee sued to halt vote-by-mail efforts in California after Gov. Gavin Newsom in May signed an executive order to allow expanded absentee and mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic. A judge on Friday temporarily blocked the order, which directed the state to send mail-in ballots to all registered voters.
On Monday, Trump floated the possibility that Democrats may try to swing the election by failing to send conservatives vote-by-mail ballots.
Gov. Newsom “announced that he’s sending out millions and millions of mail-in ballots. You say, ‘Who are they sending these to?’ Maybe people who are, let’s say, in a Republican district, and maybe those ballots, don’t get sent there,” Trump said. “This is the craziest thing. This will be a rigged election if they are allowed to do it.”
Trump continued: “I think that’s the one of the biggest risks I have. And the biggest risk, frankly, that the Republican Party has is mail-in ballots. It’s a very big risk.”
Trump described some circumstances under which ballot fraud could occur. “They hold up mailmen,” Trump said, “they take them out of mailboxes, they print them fraudulently.”
Democrats say voting by mail widens voter participation, particularly among older voters.
Trump criticized Newsom’s order last month, including in remarks at a Rose Garden news conference last month, where he said that Newsom was mailing ballots “to anybody. People that aren’t citizens, illegals. Anybody that walks in California is going to get a ballot.”
