US President Donald Trump has encouraged voters in the state of North Carolina to vote twice: by mail and in person.
This way, he says, they can check whether their vote has been counted.
“Let them send it in and then vote,” the president told WECT-TV in Wilmington, North Carolina. He stated that people could only vote a second time if their submitted ballot paper has not been processed.
According to Trump, that is not possible if the system is “as good as they say”.
The president’s proposal was immediately criticized. “Voting twice is illegal. Don’t listen to the president,” civil rights organization ACLU said on Twitter.
American media reports that the Trump campaign has now nuanced the president’s statements. Trump, according to a spokesman, meant that people who vote by mail should personally check that their votes have been counted.
In the elections in November, voting is expected to be widespread by mail due to the corona crisis. People do not have to go to a polling station physically.
Trump has repeatedly said that postal voting is highly susceptible to fraud, but according to experts, election fraud is rare in the United States.