Donald Trump has continued to criticize postal voting in the United States, responsible, according to him, for his defeat in 2020. But the candidate is abandoning this crusade, aware that it could cost him dearly at the polls in November.
“A big scam”, at the origin of “massive fraud”: the tempestuous Republican has fueled numerous conspiracy theories around this voting method for years.
The septuagenarian has repeatedly insinuated, without evidence, that postal voting would have allowed the Democrats to carry out major ballot stuffing operations during the last presidential election – won by Joe Biden and the result of which he never recognized.
These allegations have been denied by the authorities and in the courts.
“All the tools”
Without returning to these past statements, the candidate for the November presidential election, against all expectations, announced this week the launch of an initiative… to encourage postal voting.
“The Republicans must win and we will use all appropriate tools to beat the Democrats because they are destroying our country,” Donald Trump justified in a press release, pledging to “protect access to the vote”.
How can we explain this turnaround?
According to analysts: the gap between him and Democratic President Joe Biden promises to be so tight that he cannot afford to lose the votes of Republicans tempted by postal voting.
2020, the pandemic
About 90% of Americans cast a ballot in person in 1996. But in recent years, advance voting — and particularly by mail — has spread spectacularly.
In the United States, each state can adapt the way its population expresses its voice.
Some Americans vote on machines, others with paper ballots. Some vote on site, others remotely, weeks in advance, or on election day.
During the 2020 presidential election, organized in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, voters preferred postal voting to in-person voting on D-day. And if this practice was more favored by Democrats according to the Pew research institute , a significant number of Republicans -32%- also chose this method.
The recent change in tone from the Trump camp is therefore “probably due to the fact that they realized that discouraging these forms of voting could have cost them votes” during the previous election, Ray Brescia of the ‘Albany Law School.
France as an example
To justify his strong opposition to postal voting, Donald Trump has often used the example of France, which organizes its elections in person, without resorting to early voting.
“We are the laughing stock of the world when it comes to elections,” declared the Republican on social networks in 2022.
Despite his numerous criticisms, Donald Trump himself used postal voting in Florida during the primaries in 2020.
His back and forth on the matter is numerous.
“Our goal is an election held over one day with paper ballots – very simple – and an ID. But until then, the Republicans must win,” he reluctantly told supporters gathered in Wisconsin in April.
In May, the candidate encouraged his supporters to vote by mail, while calling the practice “largely corrupt”.
“Trump’s willingness to finally agree to play the game as it is played is one of the most important issues on which he has changed his mind since he became president,” judge Brian Mudd, host conservative radio station in Palm Beach County, Trump’s stronghold in Florida.
“And if he comes to power again, this notable change in philosophy will be a reason. »