Trump Once Again Votes by Mail in Florida Election—But He Doesn't Think You Should

President Donald Trump has been escalating his push for the US Senate to pass sweeping legislation that would ban universal mail-in voting, spreading misinformation about mailed ballots, and slamming the system as "cheating"—but amid his efforts, he found time recently to cast his own ballot by mail for the latest time in Florida's special legislative election.

Voter records in Palm Beach County showed Trump cast his ballot by mail before early voting ended Sunday in state House and Senate races in Florida.

It's at least the second time that the president has voted by mail in Florida; he did so in 2020 as well.

“I can vote by mail," he told reporters at the time. "I’m allowed to.”

That same year, he aggressively promoted the baseless notion that voting by mail—a system long used in states run by both Republicans and Democrats, including Utah and Washington—would lead to election fraud.

Numerous US courts found no evidence of fraud in the 2020 election, in which more voters relied on voting by mail due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The president has said he aims only to prohibit universal mail-in voting rather than stopping individual voters from using mailed ballots; one of the new anti-voting rights bills he's proposed, the Make Elections Great Again Act, would prohibit universal mail voting and limit the system to a select few people by requiring voters to submit an application to receive a mail-in ballot.

Trump referred to voting by mail as "mail-in cheating" in Memphis on Monday, and said for the second time in a week that the US is "the only country that does mail-in voting."

He made a similar comment last week when hosting Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, whose country is one of dozens that allow voting by mail for some voters. Countries with universal mail-in voting include Canada, Iceland, Switzerland, and Germany.

Trump's use of mail-in voting led House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) to denounce him as a "complete fraud" on Tuesday.

"Don’t ever believe a word he has to say about election integrity," said Jeffries.

Republican senators on Monday agreed to include portions of the SAVE America Act, a new version of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, in a reconciliation bill that would also include funding for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The bill passed in the House last month.

Under the SAVE America Act, photo ID would be required for all voters, including copies of a voter's ID with mail-in ballots.

"For voters who register by mail, the SAVE America Act requires documentary proof of citizenship to be delivered in person to an election office, effectively nullifying the benefits of mail registration," said the Bipartisan Policy Center last month.

Trump said last August that Democrats want mailed ballots to be available to voters because "it’s the only way they can get elected," despite the fact that such ballots are used by voters in both parties. He has also expressed confidence that Republicans "will never lose a race" if the GOP moves to restrict voting access.

Also on Monday, the US Supreme Court heard arguments in a case from Mississippi regarding ballots that are postmarked by Election Day and received within the state's five-day grace period. The court's right-wing majority appeared poised to ban states from accepting ballots after Election Day.