Sen. Rick Scott said he believes states can lean on absentee voting in upcoming elections despite President Trump’s concerns about mail-in voting.
The Florida Republican acknowledged that many residents of his state, including Trump himself, use absentee ballots to vote by mail. He told State of the Union on Sunday that he supports voting via absentee ballots but does not support calls from Democrats to do future elections exclusively by mail.
“I want people to go vote, and we’ve got to do it where there’s no fraud. So, 100% participation, 0% fraud. So, the way we do it in Florida, we have absentee ballots. We are able to — we’ve figured out how to do it in a safe manner,” Scott said.
“Now, I think what a lot of the Democrats want to do is do only mail-in ballots, and I don’t think that’s right. I think — I think as long as you can do it safely, as long as you can make sure there’s no fraud, we ought to be able to do absentee ballots like we do it in Florida,” he added.
Scott noted that Florida has three methods of voting: absentee ballots, early voting, and standard voting on Election Day. He said all of the methods have precautions set in place to ensure no fraudulent votes are counted.
“I believe you can do it if you do it safely, and you have the laws, and everybody follows the laws. So, I think that’s the key. And I think — look, I’m fine with absentee ballots the way we do it in Florida, with early voting the way we do it in Florida, and with Election Day voting, clearly, which is clearly the safest,” he said.
Trump has been outspoken in his opposition to mail-in elections. Last week, he threatened to withhold federal funding to the state of Michigan over its plan to send every resident an absentee ballot application.
