Election officials in North Carolina warned voters on Thursday that voting more than once, or attempting to do so, is a felony, USA Today reported. The warning comes a day after President Trump suggested that voters should try to cast their ballots via by mail and in-person to see if they get caught.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr , speaking to a local Wilmington news station on Wednesday, Trump suggested that Tarheel State voters should test the state’s voter fraud system by trying to vote twice, once by mail and once in-person.
“Let them send it in and let them go vote. And if the system is as good as they say it is then obviously they won’t be able to vote [in person],” Trump said.
The president has steadfastly opposed expanding voting by mail, claiming, without evidence, that the process would lead to widespread voter fraud. Experts say that this type of crime is rare and that, even if it happens, it’s unlikely to occur on a large-enough scale to be statistically significant.
Trump’s claim notwithstanding, election officials in the state are clear that doing what the president appeared to suggest is a felony.
“It is illegal to vote twice in an election,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, adding that voting “with intent to commit a fraud to register or vote at more than one precinct or more than one time… in the same primary or election” is a Class I felony.
“Attempting to vote twice in an election or soliciting someone to do so also is a violation of North Carolina law,” she added.
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein said effectively the same thing, telling residents of the state to “vote, but do not vote twice.”
Brinson Bell also explained some of the processes that are intended to keep North Carolina voters from voting more than once. Specifically, voters who use the absentee option, or voting-by-mail, will have their names removed from the list of eligible voters at the polling station. If they show up in-person to vote and their name is not listed, they can ask for, and cast, a provisional ballot, and after the election, officials will review the ballot to see if it should be counted.
Further, the list of eligible voters will be updated early in the morning on Election Day, before the polls open.
Should someone actually vote at both the polls and via absentee, their absentee ballot can and will be retrieved and will not be counted.
