Twitter has deemed a tweet from President Donald Trump as “misleading” and “disputed” regarding mail-in ballots, which the president purported Monday as having “big problems.”
The president has long been an opponent of mail-in voting as voters nationwide have opted to take the route out of concern that in-person voting could put them at risk for the coronavirus. On Monday night, Trump tweeted that there had been discrepancies in the mail-in voting process. His comments came on the heels of an Associated Press report that showed 58.6 million early or absentee ballots had been cast already — which exceeds total early voting for 2016.
“Big problems and discrepancies with Mail In Ballots all over the USA. Must have final total on November 3rd,” he wrote about 7:30 p.m. Monday. Overnight, Twitter placed a disclaimer above the tweet that it “might be misleading about how to participate in an election or another civic process.”
As has been extensively reported, the president’s tweets have received such denotations in the past, with some tweets being blocked regarding the coronavirus and his opponent for president, former Vice President Joe Biden. His message Monday came as the Supreme Court voted to deny a bid by Democrats to reinstate a six-day extension for mail-in ballots to reach election officials in the key battleground state of Wisconsin.
Democrats have continued to dominate the initial balloting, but Republicans are narrowing the gap. GOP voters have begun to show up at early in-person voting, a sign that many heeded Trump’s unfounded warnings about mail-voting fraud.
The president’s sentiments about mail-voting fraud have been a continued theme throughout the election. In June, Trump tweeted that mail-in ballots would lead to the “scandal of our times.”
“RIGGED 2020 ELECTION: MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WILL BE PRINTED BY FOREIGN COUNTRIES, AND OTHERS. IT WILL BE THE SCANDAL OF OUR TIMES," read a tweet.
A Twitter spokesperson told The Hill that a warning was placed on the tweet “for sharing potentially misleading information about how to participate in an election.”
“With this warning and in line with our Civic Integrity Policy, we will significantly reduce the Tweet’s visibility and people will not be able to Like, Reply or Retweet it,” the spokesperson added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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