U.S. President Donald Trump voted by mail in a Florida special election being held today, despite calling the method “cheating” as he tries to force Congress to pass a voting law that could potentially block millions of U.S. citizen from voting. The move comes as the Supreme Court weighs the legality of mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day that are received later.
Trump has refused to consider funding measures for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has been defunded for more than a month, until the Senate passes his SAVE America Act. The Act has some of the strictest voting provisions since the Jim Crow measures of the late 1800s that sought to suppress votes based on race. The bill passed the House last month but has failed to garner enough support to pass the Senate.
After a meeting last night, Senate Republicans have now said Trump is backing off on tying DHS funding to the Save Act. According to a Senate source, Trump is willing to separate funding for ICE’s enforcement and removal operations from the DHS appropriations bill to gain enough Democratic support to pass that bill. Republicans would then try to pass additional money for ICE through a separate reconciliation bill.
Republicans may also try to include elements of the Save Act in the ICE bill. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who was confirmed as the new DHS Secretary yesterday, reportedly attended the meeting along with border chief Tom Homan and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
The repeated attempts to lump ICE funding and voting rights restrictions illustrate how important civil rights suppression is to the current administration. As currently written, the SAVE Act would require voters to provide proof of citizenship to register in the form of a birth certificate or passport. It is unclear if those who have changed their legal names since birth but do not possess a passport would be able to register, which could impact a large number of married women, trans people and others.
The SAVE Act would also require states to hand over voter rolls to the DHS, which raises a host of privacy and surveillance concerns and moves toward the federalization of elections. The bill would also essentially eliminate mail-in voter registration and voting, although it is unclear if Trump is aware that he also would not be able to legally mail in his vote.
The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections website reveals Trump voted by mail in today’s special election for the Florida state house and mailed in his ballot at least one other time, in 2020.
“Mail-in voting means mail-in cheating,” said Trump yesterday during an appearance in Memphis, TN. “I call it mail-in cheating, and we got to do something about it all.”