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By Benjamin Lynch
US Politics and National Affairs Reporter
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Donald Trump was corrected on his claims about voter fraud by Fox News host Laura Ingraham during a town hall in South Carolina on Tuesday.
Speaking at a pre-taped town hall broadcast on February 20, the former president said "you automatically have fraud" when mail-in voting systems are used. Ingraham said in response that "there is mail-in voting in Florida and you won huge."
The Context
Trump has continued to say the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, but there is no evidence of this. He made repeated claims in the lead up to the election that the use of mail-in voting led to fraud. "As far as the ballots are concerned, it's a disaster," he said in September 2020.
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Newsweek has approached a Trump spokesperson for comment via an email out of hours.
What We Know
Trump said: "When you go into a voting place, like you go into one in a properly run state, they look at you, you give voter ID, you give all sorts of identification... It would be very hard to cheat [on] a mass scale."
...
Trump won over Biden in Florida by around 371,686 votes.
Data from Pew Research released in November 2020 said around 46 percent of voters said they used absentee of mail-in ballots to vote in the presidential election.
It is not yet clear if similar numbers can be expected for future presidential elections due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on in-person voting.
"Two-thirds of Trump voters say they voted in person, compared with 42 percent of Biden voters," Pew Research said.
Views
Comments on social media showed a mixed reaction towards Trump's comments on the mail-in voting system.
"As a Democrat I hope all Republicans listen to Trump and never vote by mail." one X user said.
Another said that Trump "can't prove the fraud he still claiming happened."
Another said: "Yeah. I don't understand what he's trying to accomplish."
Others on social media agreed with Trump. "It's common sense," one X user wrote.
Another added: "He's right. Mail in voting is mail in fraud."
One person said that Trump was actually "talking about Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona."
Each of these states were Biden's smallest by margin of votes. There is no evidence of voter fraud in any of these states in the 2020 election.
What's Next?
Republican State Senator Blaise Ingoglia is hoping to add restrictions to using mail-in voting in Florida.
Ingoglia's SB 1752 bill, proposed in January, says mail-in ballots would be used under the following circumstances:
- Expecting to be absent from their county of residence on Election Day
- Unable to vote in person because of illness or disability
- A resident/patient at a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical facility
- Confined in jail.
Ingoglia said the bill was in the interest of making sure there were "safeguards" in place, but critics like Florida Senate Democrat Lori Berman say the proposals could disenfranchise voters that might need them, such as the sick or elderly.
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