Trump tells Republicans they may use mail ballots despite past fraud warnings

At an impromptu press conference on the White House South Lawn, Donald Trump encouraged Republican voters to use mail-in ballots for the forthcoming midterm elections, while also stating a personal preference for in-person voting. He warned that mail voting is vulnerable to cheating, pointing to a recent Maricopa County, Arizona, mishap in which 3,100 early ballots were sent out before the official deadline. County officials attributed the error to a third-party vendor but affirmed the ballots’ validity.

Trump described the episode as “crooked” and condemned the county as “very, very dishonest.” He framed the message as a call for massive Republican turnout, whether by mail, early, absentee, or in-person, to defeat Democratic opponents.