Trump denounces calls to expand mail-in voting for November

With the threat of the Coronavirus spurring calls from Democrats for broader use of mail-in voting in the 2020 General Election, President Donald Trump on Friday sternly denounced the idea, even though he just cast a ballot in recent weeks using a mail-in ballot system in Florida.

"It shouldn't be mail-in voting, it should be you go to a booth," President Trump said at his regular Coronavirus briefing.

"You don't send it in the mail where people pick up all sorts of bad things could happen," Mr. Trump added, alleging that mail-in elections could create fraud.

"I think a lot of people cheat with mail-in voting," the President said, though his special commission on voter fraud made no such findings.

But while the President and some Republicans in Congress have objected to the effort to expand mail-in voting for this year because of the virus outbreak, not all GOP elected officials oppose the idea of expanded mail-in voting opportunities.

With the Coronavirus causing troubles right now, the Secretary of State in Georgia - a Republican - is sending absentee ballot request forms to every single registered voter in the state for the May 19 primary election.

"They will simply have to fill out and return the application to vote by mail in the upcoming elections with no in-person risk of exposure to COVID-19," Georgia Secretary of State John Raffesnperger's office said.

In Nevada, state officials decided to go one step further than Georgia.

"All active registered voters in Nevada will be mailed an absentee ballot for the primary election," Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske announced. "No action or steps, such as submitting an absentee ballot request application, will be required by individual voters in order to receive a ballot in the mail."

While the President said voters should use a voting booth, Mr. Trump voted absentee - by mail - in the Florida Primary just last month.

Federal elections official estimate almost 24 percent of the votes cast in the 2016 election were cast using absentee-by-mail balloting, an option used by the President's home state of Florida and over 30 other states.

Some states - most notably Washington, Oregon, California and Colorado - have shifted to mail-in voting.