Trump Smears Secure Mail-In Ballot ‘Drop Boxes’ With New Deranged Conspiracy Theory

President Donald Trump on Monday launched another assault on the way mail voting operates.

In a tweet, he criticized the use of drop boxes for mail ballots, a practice that was expanded in Florida under changes signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Trump had praised Florida’s system of early voting and DeSantis’ leadership just two weeks ago.

“Some states use ‘drop boxes’ for the collection of Universal Mail-In Ballots,” the president wrote. “So who is going to ‘collect’ the Ballots, and what might be done to them prior to tabulation? A Rigged Election? So bad for our Country. Only Absentee Ballots acceptable!”

As The Sun-Sentinel notes: “The Trumps have been registered Republican voters in Palm Beach County since last year, when the president announced he was changing his official residence after he got mad at his home state of New York. They used mail ballots in the March presidential primary, and again for Tuesday’s local primary.”

NPR’s Miles Parks explained that ballots are collected from drop boxes by the same election officials who collect ballots from the boxes located at polling stations on election day.

“Dropboxes, which are usually monitored 24/7 by video surveillance and weigh 600ish pounds, are actually considered a way to give the voter MORE control over their ballot,” he wrote in response to the president’s tweet. “Election officials pick them up directly, eliminating the USPS (and potential delays) from the process.”

@pamelafessler wrote a great piece on them.

"Ballot boxes play an increasingly important role in all this because, you know, you shave off two, three, four, maybe five days from when you mail a ballot," Conn. Secretary of State Denise Merrill told her.https://t.co/4kD6mLW3KB

— Miles Parks (@MilesParks) August 17, 2020

Trump has said FLORIDA is a model for mail-in voting.

Florida uses drop boxes.

They are available at the Supervisor of Elections' main and branch offices and early voting sites https://t.co/qtfTgUemIO https://t.co/4g8hs9S4gA

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) August 17, 2020

FACT CHECK: @NBCNews asked Ohio's Republican Secretary of State if Ohio experienced voter fraud during its primary – where, by law, a drop box for mail-in ballots was required in each of its 88 counties.

His answer: "Absolutely not." https://t.co/xJgA4PAgdx

— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) August 17, 2020

Guessing you just watched my segment on Fox News with @ericshawntv, because of course you did.

Drop boxes have been in wide use for years and are now in 33 states, some of which vote entirely through vote-by-mail.

Do you want to acknowledge facts, or just undermine elections?

— Senator Brad Hoylman (@bradhoylman) August 17, 2020