Trump ignites uproar by asking supporters vote twice

U.S. President Donald Trump has ignited some uproar, by making a criminal suggestion to his supporters to vote twice, by mail and in person in the 3 November election.

He made the call in the critical political battleground of North Carolina.

“Let them send it in and let them go vote,” Trump said in an interview on Wednesday with WECT-TV in Wilmington, North Carolina.

“And if the system is as good as they say it is, then obviously they won’t be able to vote” in person.

While White House initially denied the meaning of his call, Trump doubled down in series of tweets on Thursday.

He again urged his supporters to vote early by mail and then follow up by attempting to vote in person.

“On Election Day, or Early Voting go to your Polling Place to see whether or not your Mail In Vote has been Tabulated (Counted),” Trump wrote. “If it has you will not be able to Vote & the Mail In System worked properly. If it has not been Counted, VOTE.”

Twitter Inc later placed warnings over the tweets for violating its rules on civic and election integrity. Facebook Inc (FB.O) also placed a new label on Trump’s post, in which it said “voting by mail has a long history of trustworthiness in the US and the same is predicted this year.”

Facebook also said it would remove the video of Trump talking about voting twice, if people shared it without any captions or context, or in support of what the president said.

A spokesman told Reuters on Thursday afternoon it had not yet identified or removed such versions of the video.

Trump has repeatedly asserted, without evidence, that mail-in voting – expanded by some states because of the coronavirus pandemic – would increase fraud and disrupt the November election, although experts say voter fraud of any kind is extremely rare in the United States.

Voting more than once in an election is illegal and in some states, including North Carolina, it is a felony not only to vote more than once but also to induce another to do so.

Ballots are due to be mailed in North Carolina on Friday.

State Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, wrote on Twitter that the Republican president had “outrageously encouraged” North Carolinians “to break the law in order to help him sow chaos in our election.”

Stein wrote: “Make sure you vote, but do NOT vote twice! I will do everything in my power to make sure the will of the people is upheld in November.”