President Trump Suggests The 2020 Election Ballots May Never Be Accurately Counted

President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Thursday to suggest that the results of the 2020 presidential election may never be accurately counted due to mail-in voting, Reuters reported. In response, Twitter put a warning label about accurate voting information on the tweet.

Trump has consistently tried to advance the narrative that the results of the upcoming presidential election will be suspect, even going so far as to accuse Democrats of “rigging” the election. In particular, he’s been adamant that voting-by-mail, a process that several states have enacted or expanded this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, will open up the process to fraud.

On Thursday, he repeated a similar refrain.

“Because of the new and unprecedented massive amount of unsolicited ballots which will be sent to ‘voters’, or wherever, this year, the Nov 3rd Election result may NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED, which is what some want. Another election disaster yesterday. Stop Ballot Madness!” he tweeted.

Twitter then flagged the tweet with a warning label advising users to “Learn how voting by mail is safe and secure.” Users who click the link are then directed to a page that debunks rumors about the process.

For example, a sentence notes that reports of voter fraud connected to mail-in voting are extremely rare, and that the U.S. Postal Service has made it clear that it is equipped to handle all of the expected mail-in ballots this year.

In a follow-up tweet, Trump suggested that the “big Unsolicited Ballot States” should “give it up NOW,” else there will be mayhem. He did note that absentee ballots, which voters have to ask for rather than be given by default, are okay.

Twitter attached the same label to that post as well.

A short time later, Trump referenced Twitter directly, although not in relation to voting or warning labels.

“Twitter makes sure that Trending on Twitter is anything bad, Fake or not, about President Donald Trump. So obvious what they are doing. Being studied now!” he wrote.

Trump has previously accused Twitter of favoring his opponents and stifling conservative viewpoints, according to NPR News, particularly in light of labels about accurate information attached to some of his tweets. Further, he’s called for changing Section 230, a part of the 1996 Communications Decency Act that shields online platforms from legal liability for what others post on their sites.

Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley has introduced a bill that would revoke such protections unless the companies agreed to an audit to determine if they are propagating a political bias in how they moderate their content.