On Friday night in North Carolina “Tellery”, which was later posted on Facebook, Trump elaborated on how he wanted voters to vote during the first few minutes of the call. If they voted by mail, they said they had to go to their polling place anyway and “make sure that your vote by mail was voted and counted.” Trump pointed out that if it were counted, he would not be able to vote. .
Voting twice in the same election is a federal crime and a felony in almost every state, including North Carolina.
Trump also mentioned the possibility that a voter’s mail-in ballot would be voted in person after voting.
“If it’s not counted, go to vote (all citizens’ rights) go and vote. Push the lever and vote. If it’s not counted, if it doesn’t show, go. After you vote, the mail-in ballot shouldn’t arrive after you vote, but maybe it’s possible. In this case, the ballot will not be used or counted because it has already been voted and voted. You can be guaranteed your vote count. “So send it. And let’s see and vote and see what happens. You are now convinced that your very valuable and important votes have been counted.”
The call shook Trump’s previous allusions that voters would have to vote twice. This is illegal. These attempts are rarely certain, but the coronavirus pandemic and the unprecedented demand for vote-by-mail may intensify confusion over elections that have already been overturned.
As an indication of how widespread the President’s message was transmitted, at least one voter in North Carolina heard a telerally after receiving an unwanted call from an unknown number with an area code of 704.
Residents, who have been enrolled as a Republican for more than 20 years, told CNN that they were surprised to hear Trump’s voice when they answered a landline phone just before 7pm EST on Friday until they switched to non-affiliated last year.
Anyone who didn’t want to be identified either didn’t expect a call or said the call would take more than 30 minutes. The man said he thought he would reverse his previous comments when he started talking about absentee ballots, but he said not.
CNN contacted the Trump Campaign and the North Carolina State Election Commission about the President’s recent comments.
“Well, they’re going to go out and vote. And they’ll have to go to the polls and confirm their vote by voting that way, because once it’s voted they can’t. Do that,” Trump said. Let them send it to vote. If the system is as good as they say, you will definitely not be able to vote. If it’s not tabulated, they can’t. This is how you vote. That’s what they have to do. “
The White House is defending the president’s remarks suggesting that the Americans vote twice, saying Trump “wants the right to vote,” and is simply trying to get the Americans to “check your vote.”
“The president does not tolerate illegal voting,” White House reporter Kaylee McKennaney told reporters on Thursday. “The President was very clear about this.”
She argued that the media “takes the president out of context.”
“I don’t know exactly what he was talking about,” Barr said on Wednesday, but what he is saying is trying to point out that he has a poor ability to monitor this system. “If it was so good, try a second vote and you’ll get caught if you vote yourself.”
When Blitzer said it was illegal to vote so twice, Barr said he did not know certain state laws.
Following Trump and Bar’s comments on Wednesday, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold warned voters not to try to vote twice.
In a statement, Griswold said, “Correcting misinformation about our election is an important part of my job elected by the Coloradans.” “While 2020 was unprecedented in many ways, I never imagined that as Secretary of State I would have to inform the President and the US Attorney General that it was illegal to vote twice.”
CNN’s Marshall Cohen, Katelyn Polantz, Nikki Carvajal, Sam Fossum, Maegan Vazquez, and Chandelis Duster contributed to this report.