Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto sparred with Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner on the nuances between absentee ballots and mail-in voting during a Tuesday afternoon exchange on “Cavuto Live.”
After criticizing Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for attempting to make changes to the postal service “clearly at the instigation of the president, who doesn’t want mail-in voting,” Warner said, “I don’t understand the difference between what the president says mail-in voting and what he said himself with absentee voting in Florida.”
While Trump has encouraged absentee voting in Florida, where he tweeted the system has been “cleaned up,” he has opposed mass mail-in voting in states like California, where voters will automatically receive their ballots by mail, as rife with fraud potential.
There are also concerns that even election-day postmarked mail-in ballots, expected to be twice the usual number, might not make it back to polling places within the three-day limit.
“But isn’t mail-in voting exponentially a much larger number, senator?” Cavuto pressed. “You are dealing with a large factor here that the post office might have been ill-equipped to deal with in one fell swoop.”
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“My understanding, a state like ours, we have made it easier to vote absentee,” Warner said. “You still have to request absentee, and don’t you think in the midst of a pandemic we should actually make it easy if people are concerned about going to a polling place to be able to vote by mail?”
Citing the fact that Trump votes by mail in Florida, Warner called the president’s comments “a little disingenuous.”
DeJoy has suspended any proposed or planned changes, such as the removal of some letter sorting machines, until after the election. The Virginia senator said he was glad the postmaster general “reversed himself,” but argued that voters shouldn’t have to “rely on his good graces.” (RELATED: Chris Wallace On Potential Mail-In Voting Fraud: ‘Isn’t It Possible That The President Really Has A Point Here?’)
“Now, I definitely see your point, senator, but we’re compounding two different matters, right?” said Cavuto. “Absentee ballots, much smaller number than overall mail-in ballots. We’ve got to prepare for the day we might have such an overwhelming mail-in response. That’s the way to go.”