Twitter and North Carolina Push Back on Trump Vote-Twice Tweet

(Bloomberg) -- North Carolina officials are once again telling Tar Heel state voters not to listen to Donald Trump. Twitter agrees, and placed a flag on a Saturday tweet by the president as violating its policies.

The president urged North Carolina voters in a Saturday morning post to sign and send their mail-in ballot but to also go to the polls to see whether it had been counted -- and if not, to vote. “Don’t let them illegally take your vote away from you!” Trump tweeted.

But it’s a crime to vote twice, and state officials have been telling voters they can track the status of their ballot online to ensure it has been counted since Trump first suggested on Sept. 3 that voters who cast mail-in ballots also go to the polls.

Showing up at the polls is not necessary in that case, and it “would lead to longer lines and the possibility of spreading COVID-19,” State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said in a Sept. 3 message to voters after Trump’s initial comments.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein posted a multi-part response to Trump on Saturday morning, saying in one tweet, “NORTH CAROLINA: Do NOT do what the President directs,” and in another urging voters to “FOLLOW THE LAW.” Stein and Brinson Bell are both Democrats.

North Carolina’s State Board of Elections on Friday launched a new online tracking service called BallotTrax, one of three ways voters who use mail-in ballots can ensure they have been received.

Twitter posted Saturday that Trump’s tweet “violated the Twitter Rules about civic and election integrity.” The post was allowed to remain accessible “in the public interest,” but interactions with the post, including “likes” and retweets, were disabled.

Trump has said repeatedly, without evidence, that voting by mail will result in election fraud.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.