CLAY COUNTY – President Donald Trump recently suggested delaying the 2020 primary election, and local residents have weighed in on what that could mean.
Trump has made it clear over the past few …
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CLAY COUNTY – President Donald Trump recently suggested delaying the 2020 primary election, and local residents have weighed in on what that could mean.
Trump has made it clear over the past few months that he’s not in favor of mail-in ballots, an option many have considered in favor of voting in-person where the risks of being exposed to COVID-19 are higher. The president tweeted on July 30 that universal mail-in voting will lead to an inaccurate and fraudulent election.
“With Universal Mail-In Voting – not Absentee Voting, which is good – 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history,” Trump’s July 30 tweet reads. “It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote.”
He since has partially walked back the tweet, but not completely. Clay Today asked residents on Facebook as part of the Facebook Question of the Week what they thought about Trump’s feeling on mail-in voting and a possible 2020 election delay.
Some echoed exactly the sentiments of Trump, but many weren’t in favor of election process changes for this year. Even outspoken supporters of the president have voiced they aren’t in favor of Trump’s suggestions.
Resident Gerry Nicholson said nothing should change.
“Keep it all the same!!” Nicholson said. “MAGA 2020.”
Others simply responded by saying “no.” There were some however that were aligned with Trump in their thoughts about mail-in voting. Scott Rednib said there should be no delay, but that there should be no mail-in voting. Another resident that responded agreed and said that mail-in voting isn’t necessary. They said if people can manage to go to Walmart and other stores, they can vote in person.
A lot of the responses consisted of people defending the constitutional ways of voting in Florida and in the country.
“In Florida, absentee ballots and mail-in ballots are the same thing,” Susan Alevy said. “It has been called mail-in voting since 2016. Many states – R and D – use this method and have found incidents of fraud very rare and usually on a small scale. It’s not as simple as copying ballots; that’s not possible on a large scale due to the coding on the ballots.”
Vote by Mail – formerly known as absentee ballot – must be requested in advance of the election. Trump clarified he’s against blanketing communities with blank ballots and relying on the integrity of the voters.
Some people said voting day should be a holiday to allow everyone the chance to easily vote at the polls without having to worry about work or anything else that might prevent someone from heading to their precinct.
One thing is clear among Clay Today’s readers this week: the 2020 presidential election shouldn’t be delayed and absentee and mail-in voting is a valid way to vote.