Trump Blasts Efforts to Expand Absentee Voting During Pandemic

States like Utah, Ohio, Florida and others have all been using mail-in voting with minimal or no excuses for years, said Jonathan Diaz, the Campaign Legal Center’s counsel on voting rights. Diaz and the CLC are currently involved in a number of legal fights dealing with absentee voting and other aspects of states’ voting systems, like ballot signature confirmation. “There are plenty of states with Republican secretaries of state who actively encourage their voters to cast ballots by mail,” Diaz said in a phone call. “There’s no widespread voter fraud in Florida or Utah… there’s partisan lines being drawn at the national level, but when you hear from election administrators who conduct these elections, Republicans and Democrats alike encourage these mail-in systems.” Diaz also pushed back on Trump’s tweets against absentee voting. “Like most election-related things, it differs from state to state,” he said, pointing to some states that not only send out absentee applications, but send ballots automatically as well. 

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