Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) told MSNBC on Friday he suspects the reason for President Trump expressing concern about states heavily relying on universal mail-in ballots for the upcoming election is because the president thinks he'll lose.
Trump and Republicans have raised the problems that universal mail-in ballots pose with fraud and the inability of the United States Postal Service to handle such an influx of mail-in ballots. They also make it a point to differentiate between absentee ballots and universal mail-in ballots.
"Governor, yesterday you signed this bill expanding and protecting mail-in voting throughout New York City. As you know, governor, the president has continued to rail against mail-in voting, says it’s rife with fraud. What do you say to folks who are watching and listening who are concerned about the idea of mail-in voting?" MSNBC's Craig Melvin asked.
"Yeah, I don’t get this rife with fraud. I think this is a set-up. I think the president is frankly anticipating losing on Election Day. And then we’re going to hear him say, ‘Oh, there was fraud in the election.’ The president is very good at always establishing a conspiracy. I think that’s the conspiracy he’s setting," Cuomo said.
"We do — we do things through the mail in this country. We pay bills through the mail. We operate through the mail. I think mail-in voting makes tremendous sense, especially now," he continued. "I don’t want people on lines on Election Day when we fought so hard to get this virus under control. So, we’re making it easy to do mail-in voting. We have now ten days of voting, so you can vote, mail in a ballot within ten days. And we also have COVID, fear of COVID, as a legal reason for an absentee ballot. I think that makes the most amount of sense."
