Pence, Betsy DeVos among administration officials who vote by mail

Vice President Mike Pence and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos are just some of the people in President Trump's orbit who vote by mail, a practice that Trump is increasingly railing against.

The president, who voted by mail himself in this year's Florida primary, has blasted attempts to expand access to mail-in voting amid the coronavirus pandemic. Officials in several states have said they don't want people to have to risk their health by waiting in line to vote, and as such have sent voters applications for absentee ballots. Six states also plan on sending ballots out in November.

Trump admitted during an interview with Politico last week that the "biggest risk" to his reelection is expanded mail-in voting, which his campaign is working to block via lawsuits. On Monday, he tweeted that because of "MAIL-IN BALLOTS, 2020 will be the most RIGGED Election in our nations history — unless this stupidity is ended."

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The Associated Press obtained elections records that show many people close to Trump routinely vote by mail. Pence, whose official residence is still listed as the Indiana governor's home, votes absentee, and DeVos has permanent absentee voting status in Michigan. On the Trump campaign side, chief operating officer Michael Glassner and deputy campaign manager Bill Stepien vote by mail in New Jersey, while senior adviser Nick Ayers does so in Georgia.

"These are people who are taking advantage of — which is perfectly legal — their right to vote absentee," Trevor Potter, president of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, told AP. "But they don't want other people to do the same thing."


Tim Murtaugh, communications director for the Trump campaign, told AP there is a "vast difference between absentee by mail when you can't get to the polls on Election Day versus mailing every registered voter a ballot, even those who didn't request one. The media thinks they're playing 'gotcha' by purposefully ignoring that difference. Voter rolls are notorious for having bad addresses or even listing dead people as active voters." Requests by AP to interview members of the campaign who vote by mail were declined.