Trump Flips, Now Encourages Michigan Residents to Vote Absentee
DETROIT — In an about face on mail-in voting in Michigan, President Donald Trump took to Twitter Monday to encourage voters to request absentee ballots and vote early.
Trump’s latest messaging on mail-in voting marks a mercurial swing from May, when the president threatened to withhold funding from Michigan after Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson mailed absentee ballot applications to all of Michigan’s 7.7 million qualified voters.
Last week, the president criticized Benson over a mistake on more than 400 overseas ballots that listed a Libertarian candidate as Trump’s running mate instead of Vice President Mike Pence. The state caught and corrected its mistake within an hour and a half of it occurring.
Political observers have predicted Trump’s earlier criticisms of mail-in voting could lead to lost votes in November in a state where he won by a narrow 10,704 vote margin in 2016.
In recent weeks, Trump’s surrogates have increasingly encouraged mail-in voting, including his son Eric Trump. The gradual warming to absentee voting appeared to culminate in Trump’s Monday tweet.
“Attention MICHIGAN! Early voting has started AND absentee ballots are being mailed out. Take advantage of the early voting and absentee calendar,” he wrote in a tweet that included a link to the state’s Michigan Voter Information Center.
Trump posted a similar tweet Monday addressed to voters in New Hampshire.
Nearly 2.3 million people have requested absentee ballots ahead of the November election and Benson has estimated the number could grow to 3 million by Nov.3.
Benson has estimated about 5 million Michigan residents will vote in the general election, which would surpass the 4.8 million people who voted in 2016. The highest turnout in Michigan occurred in the 2008 election, when a little more than 5 million visited the polls.
A Detroit News/WDIV-TV poll found Michigan residents planning to vote absentee favor former Vice President Joe Biden 68% to 25% and those planning to vote in-person favor Trump 55% to 31%. Democrat Biden led Trump 47% to 42% in the Sept. 1-3 survey of 600 likely voters that had a plus-minus 4-point margin of error
———
© 2020 The Detroit News
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
In The News
Health
Voting
2020 Elections
WASHINGTON — House Ways and Means Chairman Richard E. Neal's attitude toward legislating under a Democratic-led White House might aptly be described as "never let a crisis go to waste." The Massachusetts Democrat wants to take a page from his party's 2009 playbook, when the Obama administration took office amid the wreckage of... Read More
WASHINGTON — When the 117th Congress convenes in January, COVID-19 precautions will prevent the 435 House members from gathering in the chamber together, so opening day festivities of swearing in members and electing the speaker will look a little different. House leaders have begun discussing how to carry out... Read More
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will put $455 billion in unspent Cares Act funding into an account that his presumed successor, former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, will need authorization from Congress to use. Mnuchin plans to place the money into the agency's General Fund, a Treasury Department spokesperson said Tuesday. That fund... Read More
WASHINGTON — Top appropriators reached bipartisan agreement Tuesday on a framework for an omnibus spending package that would avoid a partial government shutdown next month. The compromise forged between the leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations committees sets spending allocations for the dozen bills that fund federal agencies... Read More
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden will begin to get the nation's most classified intelligence after the White House signed off Tuesday on providing him the Presidential Daily Briefing as the transition moves forward. The incoming president getting access to the top-secret briefing is the most high-profile part of the transition and... Read More
WASHINGTON — A top Senate Democrat said Tuesday that she's engaged in bipartisan discussions on COVID-19 aid and urged quick action even if that means "a short-term package for the next few months." "We need to act," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D- Mich., the fourth-ranking Democrat in that chamber... Read More
