North Carolina AG Responds to Trump on Checking Votes, Advises People to Not Do as ‘President Directs’

Absentee ballot election workers stuff ballot applications at the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections office in Charlotte, N.C., on Sept. 4, 2020. (Logan Cyrus/AFP via Getty Images)

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein advised people on Saturday to not follow President Donald Trump’s directions with regard to going to polling places on Election Day to check if their mail-in vote was counted.

“Do NOT do what the President directs. To make sure your ballot COUNTS, sign and send it in EARLY. Then track it ONLINE,” Stein wrote on Twitter and included a link to a website where voters can track their ballots.

“Do NOT vote twice (it’s a felony), or waste your time, or unnecessarily risk exposure to more people,” Stein added. “The only GOOD thing about the President’s tweet is that he FINALLY encourages voters to VOTE BY MAIL. It’s an easy, safe & secure way to cast a ballot.”

In a Twitter message sent less than half an hour prior to Stein, the president instructed North Carolinians to cast their vote again in person if they learn that their mail-in vote has not been counted.

“To make sure your Ballot COUNTS, sign & send it in EARLY. When Polls open, go to your Polling Place to see if it was COUNTED. IF NOT, VOTE! Your signed Ballot will not count because your vote has been posted. Don’t let them illegally take your vote away from you!” Trump wrote.

Trump offered similar instructions to voters in North Carolina on Sept. 2. Some media outlets incorrectly interpreted the president’s suggestion as an invitation to illegally cast a second vote.

Trump’s campaign told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement at the time that the president “encourages supporters to vote absentee-by-mail early, and then show up in person at the polls or the local registrar to verify that their vote has already been counted.

“It’s amazing that the media can go from insisting that voter fraud doesn’t exist to screaming about it when President Trump points out the giant holes in the Democrats’ voting schemes,” Trump campaign Director of Communications Tim Murtaugh said.

Twitter again placed a warning label on Trump’s message to the voters, stating that the post “violated the Twitter Rules about civic and election integrity.”

“We placed a public interest notice on this Tweet for violating our Civic Integrity Policy, specifically for encouraging people to potentially vote twice,” the message from the social media company states.

Twitter did not respond to a request to explain how the company determined that the president’s message encourages people “to potentially vote twice.”

North Carolina allows any registered voter to request a ballot by mail. At least 83 percent of voters in the United States can vote by mail in the 2020 election.

Mimi Nguyen Li contributed to this report.