Trump says 2020 will be 'one of greatest, most fraudulent elections ever'

More than six million Americans have already voted, with 25 days to go until election

In what has become a routine attack on mail-in ballots, Donald Trump has once more claimed that November’s presidential election will be “one of greatest, most fraudulent elections ever”.

The US president was discussing voter ID with Fox News’ anchor Sean Hannity when he launched another broadside on mail-in ballots and asked: “how many are fraudulent?”

“We should have voter ID, universal voter ID. When you go to vote they should see who you are, make sure that it’s not fraudulent,” Mr Trump complained. “But this will be one of the great, most fraudulent elections ever because of this whole thing with the ballots.”

He went on, saying “They’re sending out millions and millions and millions and millions of ballots.”

“Where are they sending them? Who's sending them? Where are they going? Where are they coming back from? How many are fraudulent? Are they being thrown away? Are they being sold? Are they being harvested?”

The president added: “It’s a terrible thing Sean, but despite that I think we’re going to have a tremendous victory.”  

His comments came as six million ballots were reported to have already been cast on Thursday, according to the United States Elections Project, in polls that could see record turnouts.

As few as 75,000 ballots were cast at the same point in 2016, prior to election day, when Mr Trump beat the then Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

But Mr Trump, who has lagged behind his 2020 opponent Joe Biden in opinion polls, has continued to delegitimise America’s voting processes — and mail-in ballots in particular — amid the pandemic.

New York Times analysis suggested that some 76 per cent of American voters were eligible to vote by mail-in ballot for this election, with states loosening restrictions on both absentee and mail-in ballots to protect voters from coronavirus transmission.

Commenting on an anticipated surge in mail-in ballots earlier this summer, the president suggested that the 3 November election should be delayed so voters could casting their vote in this way.

He wrote on Twitter: "With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history.

“Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???"

Analysis carried-out by Science Magazine between 1998 and 2018 showed that mail-in ballots allowed more people to vote, but provided only a small benefit to Democratic candidates.

Still, the US president appeared to admit several months ago that “you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again” with universal mail voting across all 50 US states.

Ahead of November’s election, all voters in nine states and Washington, D.C. have been automatically been mailed ballots ahead of the election.

While in 34 states, voters have been able to cite the coronavirus as a reason to vote with an absentee ballot.