Trump Threatens to Withhold Federal Funds From 2 Battleground States Planning Voting Changes Amid Coronavirus – By Nicholas Riccardi and Darlene Superville (AP) / May 20 2020
(Washington D.C.) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to hold up federal funds for two election battleground states that are trying to make it easier and safer to vote during the coronavirus pandemic.
The president’s tweets targeting Michigan and Nevada marked an escalation in his campaign against voting by mail, a practice that he has publicly worried will lead so many people to vote that Republicans will lose in November. Even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends mail voting as a safe option during the pandemic, Trump has opposed the spread of the practice.
Wednesday marked the first time he has tried to use federal dollars to beat it back.
Trump began by targeting Michigan, with a false description of Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s announcement Tuesday that she would send applications for absentee ballots to every voter in the state.
“Michigan sends absentee ballots to 7.7 million people ahead of Primaries and the General Election,” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning, That brought strong criticism from Michigan and elsewhere, pointing out that the state was sending applications, not actual ballots.
Continue to article: https://time.com/5839802/trump-threatens-states-voting-changes/
