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Former President Donald Trump officially joined his supporters on Tuesday by using mail-in ballots and voting early in the November election with the launch of an initiative called “Swamp the Vote USA.” “Many Republicans like to vote on Election Day and we need to overwhelm the radical Democrats with a massive turnout on Tuesday, November 5,” Trump said.
The ex-president and presumptive Republican nominee filmed a video at Mar-a-Lago explaining that he still wanted elections to take place on Election Day only with paper ballots and voter ID cards. However, that is not how current election laws stand. “But until then, the Republicans have to win,” Trump said. “And we must use every appropriate tool available to defeat the Democrats, they are destroying our country.”
The website SwampTheVoteUSA.com, launched in partnership with the Republican National Committee, allows Trump supporters to pledge to vote absentee, early or on Election Day. It even allows them to obtain a ballot by mail. “Whether you vote early, absentee, by mail or in person, we are going to protect the vote,” Trump promised.
The former president continued to fuel the so-called “big lie” that Trump was robbed of a second term in 2020 because of widespread Democratic voter fraud – for which there is no evidence. In the video, Trump said “we never want what happened in 2020 to happen again.” “Keep your eyes open because these people want to cheat and they do, and honestly that’s the only thing they’re good at,” the ex-president continued. “The way you win is by flooding them. “If we flood them, they can’t cheat, it just doesn’t work,” Trump added.
Ahead of Election Day 2020, Trump lamented the widespread use of mail-in ballots, with states passing more permissive election laws regarding absentee voting due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This made Trump’s Republican supporters more hesitant to use mail-in ballots, while Democrats encouraged their voters to send in their ballots early. In addition, some states passed laws that did not allow ballot counting to begin until Election Day.
That resulted in Trump being the early leader in some battleground states, but President Joe Biden was able to pull ahead because paper ballots took longer to count than in-person votes on Election Day. In the hours after polls closed across the country, Trump falsely claimed there was widespread fraud, referring to mail-in ballots.
“We were preparing to win this election, to be honest, we won this election,” he said from the White House after the crucial state of Arizona had already been called for Biden by Fox News. “We want all voices to stop,” the then-president continued. “We don’t want them finding ballots at 4 in the morning and adding them to the list.”
But since Trump launched his third bid for the White House in November 2022, some Republicans have implored the ex-president to agree to mail-in and early voting, as Election Day turnout could be affected by a number of factors – including the weather.
“But if you don’t make it,” Trump said of Election Day, “you need to make a plan, register and vote any way you can.” “We need your vote,” the ex-president added, saying November 5 would be “the most important day in the history of our country.”
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