Mail ballots greater threat than foreign interference: Trump

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Washington, Sep 17 (IANS) US President Donald Trump has claimed that mail-in voting posed a greater threat to the November 3 election than foreign interference, the media reported.

Addressing reporters at the White House on Wednesday, the President said that "our biggest threat to this election is Governors from opposing parties controlling ballots, millions of ballots", The Hill news website reported.

"To me, that's a much bigger threat than foreign countries because much of the stuff coming out about foreign countries turned out to be untrue," he added.

The President's remarks came despite warnings from intelligence officials that China, Iran and Russia were all attempting to interfere in the upcoming election.

Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, many states across the US have expanded access to mail ballots.

A record number of people are expected to vote by mail.

While 10 states are sending out ballots to voters, others were sending out applications for absentee ballots, said The Hill news website report.

Trump has made several remarks against postal balloting recently.

Last month, the President said that universal mail-in voting would be "catastrophic" and make the country "a laughing stock", while adding that he had no issue with absentee voting, which he himself uses.

His remarks intensified after the US Postal Service in late July sent letters to 46 states and Washington, D.C., notifying them of possible delays in the delivery of mail-in ballots, which will result in the not counting of those votes in the November 3 presidential election.

The letter warned that "certain deadlines for requesting and casting mail-in ballots are incongruous with the Postal Service's delivery standards".

--IANS

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