Trump encourages North Carolinians to commit voter fraud

Donald Trump on Wednesday encouraged North Carolinians to commit voter fraud, saying in an interview with a local television station that voters should cast one vote by mail and one vote in person — a move that is blatantly against the law.

Trump made the comment after he was asked if he has faith in North Carolina’s absentee voting system.

“Well, they’ll go out and they’ll go vote, and they’re going to have to go and 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 told Wilmington, North Carolina’s WECT in an interview. “So, let them send it in, and let them go vote, and if the system is as good as they say it is, then obviously they won’t be able to vote. If it isn’t tabulated, they won’t be able to vote. So that’s the way it is. And that’s what they should do.”

North Carolina law clearly states that it is a felony “for any person with intent to commit a fraud to register or vote at more than one precinct or more than one time, or to induce another to do so, in the same primary or election, or to vote illegally at any primary or election.”

Later Wednesday, Attorney General William Barr was asked about Trump’s encouragement of North Carolina voters to commit voter fraud. Barr — the nation’s top law enforcement officer — claimed he didn’t know if it was against the law to vote twice.

“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,” Barr told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer as he tried to justify Trump’s call for voters to commit fraud.

When Blitzer specifically asked Barr whether voting twice is a crime, Barr said he didn’t know “what the law in the particular state says.”