Checking on nonexistent voter fraud isn’t anyone’s responsibility, but President Donald Trump, incensed that states are wisely increasing the use of mailed ballots to preserve the franchise and curb against coronavirus spread, wants the Department of the Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget to get on the case.
Wednesday morning on Twitter, he exploded with rage over state expansions of vote by mail, urging the agencies to hold up federal virus aid to Nevada and Michigan. That’s dangerous and tyrannical. It’s also preposterous; the funds voted by Congress and signed by him will go out as scheduled. And the states must continue to safeguard public health and democracy through postal ballots.
For November, California is mailing out ballots to all registered voters. Michigan is taking a wasteful two-step process of mailing an absentee ballot application to all voters, which must be filled out and returned by mail so the actual ballot can be sent. New York is also taking this inferior route.
Any upping of access to voting through the mail is better than Texas, where the state attorney general and Supreme Court argue that the very real risk of catching coronavirus can’t justify getting an absentee ballot. Happily, a federal judge has overruled them.
Oh, and for Trump, he’s voted by mail every election since he became president. The bigger a hypocrite is, the harder he falls.