On May 26, U.S President Donald Trump attacked the Democratic Governor of California, Gov. Gavin Newsom after he released an executive order that expands vote-by-mail in the state.President Trump claimed that Newsom's order would send ballots to every resident in California, including undocumented immigrants.
Trump's false claims
President Trump said in a news conference that the governor is planning to send millions of ballots in California. He added that he was going to send the ballots to everyone, even those who are not American citizens.
However, CNN has fact-checked the President's claim and it shows that he is wrong. Gov. Newsom's order provides ballot only to those who have registered to vote, while those who have not registered yet, the non-citizens, the undocumented immigrants, and the nonresidents are not allowed to get ballots and illegal immigrants are not permitted to register to vote in federal elections.
President Trump first accused the governor of sending millions of ballots on May 26, and he took the accusation to Twitter. Trump tweeted: "The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone... ...living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one."
On May 8, Gov. Newsom issued an executive order to send mail-in ballots to all registered voters in California in preparation for the elections in November, this is due to concerns over voting in-person during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The executive order states that each county election officials will need to transmit vote-bay-mail ballots for the General Elections on November 3, 2020, to all registered voters.
In a press release done following the revealing of the executive order, it said that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an order to make sure that people in California can still exercise their right to vote in a safe and accessible manner during the General Elections that is scheduled this November, despite the ongoing pandemic.
The order also states that only registered voters are allowed to receive a mail-in ballot. There have been reports in the past about errors that were committed by government employees. The error allowed non-citizens and immigrants to register to vote in different states.
However, Trump's claims about Newsom's agenda of sending millions of ballots to people in California, including illegal immigrants and non-citizens, are not at all true.
Although there have been reports about errors done by government employees that allowed small numbers of noncitizens to register to vote in different states, Trump's claim that Newsom is sending millions of ballots to everyone in California, including illegal immigrants, is still not true.
Democratic agenda?
President Trump's comments on May 26 came right after Republican groups filed a lawsuit against California in order to stop it from sending ballots months before the General Elections that is scheduled for November.
Republican leaders stated that Newsom's executive order is part of a wider Democratic campaign that is using the pandemic to justify a switch to vote-by-mail.
Republicans claim that voting by mail increases the chances of Democrats winning this coming election. President Donald Trump has made false claims repeatedly by saying that there is an ongoing widespread vote fraud in the United States. He also claimed that there were millions of illegal votes that were cast.
However, there is no evidence of voter fraud in America, and numerous studies have suggested that voter fraud is nonexistent in the country. Early in his administration, President Trump assembled a voter fraud commission, but they eventually disbanded and have not found any evidence to back up the claims of the president.
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