Former DHS Secretary Tom Ridge says Trump should take advantage of vote-by-mail
Former United States Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge joins Yahoo News Senior Political Correspondent Jon Ward on “The Long Game” podcast to discuss President Trump’s comments that vote-by-mail would be “substantially fraudulent” if widely used in the November election. Ridge tells Yahoo News that he believes mail-in ballots will help turnout among Republican voters in important swing districts — and that the president would be remiss not to take advantage of the option.
Video Transcript
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JON WARD: The president said that mailboxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged, and even illegally printed out and fraudulently signed. Is he wrong about that?
TOM RIDGE: Well, I believe he is wrong. I believe an organization that hopefully he respects, The Heritage Group, and you know they're a conservative think tank, took a look at the past five national elections of the past 20 years. 250 million-- 250 million-- absentee ballots cast. I think when it came down to the absentee ballot, they found, like, 200 cases of fraud where there was actually criminal proceedings begun.
I would also say to the president, within your own party, Mr. President, the Republican chairman in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania noted that the Democrats had been using absentee ballots to their advantage. And his message to the Republicans were, we have to be as smart as they are. It's a tool. And I would say to the president that you've got Republican incumbents and challengers who are going to be using this mechanism in order to hopefully either be reelected or gain advantage over an-- as a challenger. And so there's a disconnect between the president and I think the balance of the party.
JON WARD: I mean, do you think that he is potentially hurting his own chances at re-election by putting that message out there because he's possibly discouraging his own voters from using that who might otherwise not vote?
TOM RIDGE: Well, I say to the president and his team, one, you've got the bully pulpit. Two, you've got a great organization. Three, you've got a war chest that's very significant. You've got millions of electronic digital followers. It would seem to me, with all these assets in place, you are better positioned than Vice President Biden right now to get that message out to all those supporters that you want them and their families, if you can't get to the polls, let's go absentee.
And I might add to the president, take a look at Arizona. That's a swing state. About 80% of the people vote absentee there. So why wouldn't you, as the incumbent with the machinery you have available to you, just encourage-- when you know the majority of people are going to be voting absentee, take advantage of that. You know they're going to vote. Just make sure that they show in the name-- fill in the box with your name, period.
JON WARD: Yeah, Arizona is a really interesting example. I'm glad you mentioned it because it is 80% vote by mail, and the--
TOM RIDGE: It's incredible.
JON WARD: The trend line there from 2016 to 2018 and Maricopa County has not been good for the president. So it's really a county-- or a state and a county-- where he's going to need maximum turnout not just for electoral college purposes, but also for the Senate seat there, which is a huge-- hugely contested race.
TOM RIDGE: Hugely-- hugely contested there. And I would dare say-- again, we talked about the disconnect, you've got a lot of incumbents whose party-- the party and their machinery within those incumbents is looking to identify those voters. And when you think of Arizona, it's a great example-- rural, elderly. There are certain people out there that you really can't expect them necessarily to wait in line three or four hours, who may say to themselves, because of my health concerns, I'm not going to the polls. I want to vote absentee. Again, Mr. President, you have all the machinery. Take advantage of it.
