President Donald Trump — a frequent critic of mail-in voting — said Thursday he voted by mail in Florida’s special elections this month because he felt he’d rather be in Washington, D.C., “than living in the beautiful sunshine.”
“By virtue of the fact that I’m president of the United States, I did a mail-in ballot for the elections in Florida, because I felt I’d rather be here than out in the beautiful sunshine,” Trump told reporters at the White House during a Cabinet meeting Thursday.
Reminding that he often stays at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Trump responded: “I decided I was going to vote by mail-in ballot because I couldn’t go there, because I had a lot of different things going on.”
But records show the president cast his mail-in vote from Palm Beach.
According to public Palm Beach County voter records, Trump requested his mail-in ballot on Saturday, March 14. The ballot was sent to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate the same day and received for processing the next day, Sunday, March 15.
According to press pool reports, the President was in Florida both days, at his golf club from 8:45 am to 2:37 pm on Saturday and from 9:21 am to 1:55 pm on Sunday. He took off for Washington from Palm Beach International Airport at 6:33 pm on Sunday. In-person early voting will be open Saturday, March 14 through Sunday, March 22 at 7 p.m.
“We have exceptions for mail-in ballots, you know that, right?” Trump told reporters on Thursday. “If you’re away, we have an exception. If you’re in the military, we have an exception. If you’re on a business trip, we have an exception. If you’re on disability, we have an exception. And if you’re sick, if you’re not feeling well. So I was away, mostly in Washington, D.C., so I used a mail-in ballot.”
White House spokeswoman Olivia Wells did not directly answer questions about why the president voted by mail despite being in the state. “As everyone knows, the President is a resident of Palm Beach and runs in Florida elections, but he obviously primarily resides at the White House in Washington, D.C.,” Wells said in a statement. He called the report “a non-story”.
Trump has consistently criticized mail-in voting, which he claims without evidence leads to widespread election fraud.
In Memphis on Monday, he called the practice “mail-in cheating.”
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