President Donald Trump announced Sunday that mail-in ballots and early voting would be prohibited for the upcoming midterm elections, citing false claims that the 2020 election had been “rigged,” despite having no authority to outlaw such voting practices.
“Look what happened to our Country when a Crooked Moron became our ‘President!’ We now know everything,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “I hope the DOJ pursues this with as much ‘gusto’ as befitting the biggest SCANDAL in American history! If not, it will happen again, including the upcoming Midterms. No mail-in or ‘Early’ Voting, Yes to Voter ID!”
Trump had previously vowed to eradicate mail-in ballots back in August, and again without having the authority to do so. In his social media post Sunday, however, he also vowed to eradicate early voting, and singled out California for its upcoming ballot measure to redraw its congressional districts, a measure passed in response to Texas’ redistricting that was designed to bolster the GOP’s numbers in Congress.
“Watch how totally dishonest the California Prop Vote is! Millions of Ballots being ‘shipped,’” Trump wrote, with it being unclear what “millions of ballots” he was referring to. “GET SMART REPUBLICANS, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!!”
The Trump administration has deployed Justice Department officials to monitor California’s upcoming election in a move that critics have decried as a form of “voter intimidation.”