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White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who has promoted conspiracy theories about mail-in-voting fraud, voted by mail 11 times over the past 10 years

May 28, 2020, 06:20 IST
Business Insider
White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany holds up what appears to be a real check with President Donald Trump's bank account and routing number at a press briefing on Friday.The White House
  • White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has voted by mail 11 times in the past decade, the Tampa Bay Times reported Wednesday.
  • The report comes as McEnany has aggressively defended the president's false claims that mail-in voting is rife with fraud and expanding the practice would lead to "a Rigged Election."
  • Trump also regularly votes by mail and believes he should be afforded that right despite his claims about fraud.
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White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has voted by mail 11 times in the past decade, despite spreading false claims that mail-in voting is rife with fraud, the Tampa Bay Times reported Wednesday.

McEnany, who was raised in Florida and owns a home in Davis Islands, has voted by mail in every election she's participated in as a Florida voter, including the March presidential primary.

McEnany has aggressively defended Trump's false claims that mail-in voting is "substantially fraudulent" and expanding the practice would lead to "a Rigged Election." Trump has long weaponized unsubstantiated claims of mass voter fraud for political purposes and appears to be ramping up his campaign against making voting safer and more convenient amid the pandemic as the presidential election nears.

"Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed" if states expand mail-in balloting, Trump said in a Tuesday tweet, which was later marked as misleading and fact-checked by Twitter.

During a White House press briefing on May 20, McEnany said it was OK for people to vote by mail when they have a "reason" to do so and dismissed concerns about in-person voting during the pandemic.

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McEnany attempted to support her claims about mass voter fraud by citing a March ProPublica report that said "mail-in ballots are the form of voting most vulnerable to fraud." But the story also said "all types of voter fraud are rare, including mail-in ballot fraud."

The press secretary defended her habit of mail-in voting by saying that she has long been absent from her state of residence.

"Absentee voting has the word absent in it for a reason. It means you're absent from the jurisdiction or unable to vote in person," she said in a statement to Business Insider. "President Trump is against the Democrat plan to politicize the coronavirus and expand mass mail-in voting without a reason, which has a high propensity for voter fraud. This is a simple distinction that the media fails to grasp."

Like McEnany, Trump also regularly votes by mail and believes he should be afforded that right despite his claims about fraud.

"The president is, after all, the president, which means he's here in Washington," McEnany recently said of Trump's voting habits. "He's unable to cast his vote down in Florida, his state of residence."

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