Encouraging voter fraud, a crime, US President Donald Trump has called on North Carolinians to vote twice, once in person and once by mail.
When asked about the security of mail-in votes in an interview on Wednesday, Trump said: “Let them send it in and let them go vote. And if the system is as good as they say it is then obviously they won’t be able to vote” in person.
Trump made the suggestion after he threatened to cut funding for Democrat-led cities, which Trump accused of being “lawless zones,” where he has already deployed federal forces to counter unrest provoked by racism and police brutality.
“President Trump outrageously encouraged” North Carolinians “to break the law in order to help him sow chaos in our election,” State Attorney General Josh Stein said in a tweet. “Make sure you vote, but do NOT vote twice! I will do everything in my power to make sure the will of the people is upheld in November.”
Today, President Trump outrageously encouraged NCians to break the law in order to help him sow chaos in our election. Make sure you vote, but do NOT vote twice! I will do everything in my power to make sure the will of the people is upheld in November.
— Josh Stein (@JoshStein_) September 2, 2020
US Attorney General William Barr said that Trump “was trying to make the point that the ability to monitor this system is not good”. When told that voting twice is illegal, he said, “I don’t know what the law in the particular state says.”
It's a felony in our state, if I'm not mistaken. The poll judges know if you've already voted or not - it's on their sheets.
— Brian Nash (@BrianWNash) September 3, 2020
Meanwhile, Trump signed a memo on Wednesday, directing federal officials to find ways to cut funding to cities, including Seattle, Portland, New York and Washington.
“My administration will not allow Federal tax dollars to fund cities that allow themselves to deteriorate into lawless zones,” he wrote in the memo.
The president instructed Barr to develop a list of “anarchist jurisdictions” that “permitted violence and the destruction of property to persist and have refused to undertake reasonable measures” to restore order.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo reacted to the decision in a message on Twitter, saying, Trump was trying to cut off funding that states and cities must receive to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
“He is not a king. He cannot ‘defund’ NYC,” Cuomo said. “It’s an illegal stunt.”