As he did in 2020, Trump says he plans to vote early
Share this post:
Donald Trump plans to vote early in this year’s presidential election — something that isn’t new to him, but which goes against the rhetoric he uses at his campaign rallies.
Trump, who was president from 2017 to 2020 and is seeking a second term in the Oval Office, has long denigrated early voting and vote-by-mail as part of his longstanding practice of casting doubt on the security of elections, according to a report from The Associated Press.
Trump told Fox News Radio on Wednesday that he’s “very mixed on it.”
But he also says he’s pleased by reports that large numbers of Republicans are submitting their ballots before Election Day on Nov. 5.
Trump is registered to vote in Florida.
This won’t be the first time Trump hasn’t voted in person. In the 2020 election, which Trump refuses to acknowledge he lost, a third party dropped off his mail-in ballot, a Palm Beach elections supervisor told NPR.
Trump has defended his practice, although Politifact has refuted the distinction he makes between absentee and mail-in or early voting.
“For instance, I’m an absentee voter because I can’t be in Florida, because I’m in Washington,” Trump said in 2020. “I’m at the White House, so I’ll be an absentee voter. We have a lot of absentee voters, and it works. We’re in favor of absentee, but it’s much different than millions of people in California. They’re going to send out tens of millions of voting forms. Well, where are they going to go? You read where postmen are in big trouble now. You read where city councils are in big trouble now. Voter fraud all over the ballot.”
Allowing a third-party to return ballots to elections offices, as Trump did in 2020, is termed “ballot harvesting” but it is permissible in Florida.
Trump’s voting history, and political leanings have varied over time, something the Washington Post detailed here in 2015.