Donald Trump’s Campaign Manager Did Not Vote For Him In 2016 Election, Report Says
A Friday report from CBS News claimed that Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, did not vote for the president in the 2016 election.
According to the publication, the Bexar County, Texas, Election Department revealed that Parscale voted in the 2016 primary but not the general election. In a statement to CBS News, Parscale blamed his lack of a vote on the mail-in voting process, which the Trump campaign has been attacking in the lead-up to the November election.
“In 2016, I was in New York working to elect Donald Trump and encountered a series of problems receiving my absentee ballot from Texas and missed the deadline. Just further proof that vote-by-mail is not the flawless solution Democrats and the media pretend it is.”
As reported by USA Today, Parscale highlighted one purported issue with mail-in voting that he believes the media is ignoring.
“There’s a vast difference between voting absentee by mail when you can’t get to the polls on election day versus mailing every registered voter a ballot, even those who didn’t request one,” he said. “The media thinks they’re playing ‘gotcha’ by purposefully ignoring that difference.”
According to FactCheck.org, voting experts claim that the verification process used for absentee and mail-in ballots is the same. In addition, the website claimed that many states consider both methods to be identical. Nevertheless, Trump allegedly continues to create “false distinctions” between the two processes — he claims that the mail-in process is most susceptible to fraud.
Democrats have been promoting the expansion of mail-in voting amid the coronavirus pandemic. In response, Republicans have been battling against the process, and Trump has continued to claim the procedure is susceptible to fraud. Trump’s accusations have led to pushback from many, including Fox News’ Chris Wallace, who noted that polling experts have argued that the process has not led to widespread fraud.
Despite pushback against Trump’s claims, there are instances where mail-in voting can become problematic. A recent report suggested that the process could lead to up to millions of votes going uncounted due to the higher chance of human error in the process. In particular, The Intercept used data from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to conclude that over 950,000 ballots were rejected in the 2016 presidential election. The most common cause of rejection was a perceived mismatch between the signature used on the ballot and the one on the voter registration form, per the Election Assistance Commission.
