Washington — President Trump, who calls voting by mail “cheating” and wants to restrict the method, voted by mail this month in Florida’s special elections, public records show.
Records from the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections indicate the president voted by mail in Tuesday’s special election for Florida’s 87th district statehouse seat. Mr. Trump endorsed the Republican candidate in the race, Jon Maples, who ended up losing to Democrat Emily Gregory.
The county elections website says the president requested the ballot on Saturday, March 14, it was received the following day, and his vote was submitted and counted. The president was at his Palm Beach estate that weekend, when early voting in person was available.
First lady Melania Trump and son Barron Trump also voted by mail, requesting and sending their ballots on the same day as Mr. Trump, according to the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections website. They both list Mar-a-lago as their address.
Barely a week after casting his ballot by mail, the president said during an anti-crime meeting in Memphis, Tennessee on Monday, “Mail-in voting means mail-in cheating. I call it mail-in cheating, and we got to do something about it all.”
The Washington Post was first to report that the president voted by mail in Tuesday’s elections. Although Florida records only show votes cast in the last 365 days, CBS News previously reported that Mr. Trump requested a mail-in ballot in 2020 as well.
Mr. Trump has railed against voting by mail for years, claiming without evidence that the method is rife with fraud and even saying voting by mail should be banned. The president is urging Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would add more voter ID requirements and limit mail-in voting.
“I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS,” the president wrote on Truth Social in one example in August. “… ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING, and everybody, IN PARTICULAR THE DEMOCRATS, KNOWS THIS. I, AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, WILL FIGHT LIKE HELL TO BRING HONESTY AND INTEGRITY BACK TO OUR ELECTIONS.”
Mr. Trump has long blamed mail-in voting for his loss to Joe Biden in 2020, even though he won with similar voting rules in place four years later.
