WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump opened a new front Monday in his fight against mail-in voting, making unsubstantiated assertions that foreign countries will print up millions of bogus ballots to rig the results and create what he called the “scandal of our times.”
The claims not only ignore safeguards that states have implemented to prevent against widespread fraud but they also risk undermining Americans’ faith in the election, spreading the very kind of disinformation U.S. authorities have warned foreign adversaries could exploit to foment doubt in the voting process.
Though election records obtained by The Associated Press show that a half-dozen senior advisers to the president have voted by mail, others in the administration have recently promoted the notion that states could be inundated with fraudulent ballots from overseas.
But the list doesn’t broach the idea of foreign countries manufacturing their own ballots — a type of fraud that would encounter significant practical obstacles, not least because states say they are adept at differentiating legitimate ballots from inauthentic ones.
With health officials saying that voting by mail can help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, many states are moving ahead with plans that ease access to mail-in ballots.
