President Donald Trump on Wednesday urged supporters to illegally vote twice in North Carolina to test their voting system.
"They are going to have to check their vote by going to the poll and voting that way because if it tabulates, then they won't be able to do that," Trump said. "So let them send it in, and let them go vote. And if their system is as good as they say it is, then obviously they won't be able to vote. If it isn't tabulated, they will be able to vote. So that's the way it is, and that's what they should do."
Trump said the call was in response to his complaints about mail voting.
"At the same time, we're in court with a lot of it. We're going to see if it can be stopped," he said. "But send your ballots, send them in strong, whether it's solicited or unsolicited. The absentees are fine. But go to vote and if they haven't counted it, you can vote. That's the way I view it."
North Carolina law says it is illegal for someone to vote twice, and for someone to “induce another to do so.”
Bill Barr claims he doesn’t know if it’s legal:
Attorney General Bill Barr tried to defend the comments on CNN.
"Well, I don't know exactly what he was saying," Barr said. "But it seems to me what he's saying is he's trying to make the point that the ability to monitor this system is not good and if it was so good, if you tried to vote a second time, you would be caught if you voted in-person."
"That would be illegal if somebody mailed in a ballot and then actually showed up to vote in person,” host Wolf Blitzer pointed out. “That would be illegal.”
"I don't know what the law in the particular state says," Barr claimed.
"Is there any state that says you can vote twice?" Blitzer asked.
It is definitely illegal:
"Today, President Trump outrageously encouraged NCians to break the law in order to help him sow chaos in our election," said North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein. "Make sure you vote, but do NOT vote twice!"
North Carolina Board of Elections spokesman Patrick Gannon told The New York Times that the system would prevent anyone from voting twice. Only their first vote would be counted but the second one would be invalidated.
"Intentional willful double voting is a felony," he added.
