Press secretary makes false claim about why Trump voted by mail

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany claimed Wednesday that the reason President Donald Trump voted by mail in Florida’s presidential primary is that his job kept him away from his legal residence in Palm Beach County.

“With regard to the president doing a mail-in vote, the president is after all the president, which means he is here in Washington. He’s unable to cast his vote down in Florida, his state of residence. So, for him that’s why he had to do a mail-in vote,” she said during a news conference.

McEnany’s statement, which echoes what Trump himself said last month, isn’t accurate.

Trump was in Palm Beach County, where he’s made his Mar-a-Lago Club his legal address for voting purposes, on March 7 and 8, the first weekend of early voting for the March 17 presidential primary. He didn’t leave until Monday morning March 9.

He could have voted at any of the county’s 16 earlyvoting sites.

White House press pool reports show he spent part of the both weekend days at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. The golf club is across the street from a library where early voting was offered from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days.

On April 7, Trump said he voted by mail “because I’m allowed to.” When a reporter asked about his mail ballot for the March primary, he explained it’s “called ‘out of state.’ You know, why I voted? Because I happen to be in the White House and I won’t be able to go to Florida to vote.”

McEnany was asked about Trump’s mail ballot on Wednesday because the president criticized elections officials in Michigan and Nevada who are sending forms to registered voters that they can use to sign up to vote by mail.

Trump has long asserted there’s great potential for fraud connected with voting by mail, though there isn’t evidence to support the claim. “Mail-in voting is a terrible thing,” he said at a White House briefing in April.

Trump and First Lady Melania Trump voted by mail, which any Florida resident can do as a matter of convenience. In Florida, as voting by mail has gained popularity since state election law was changed after the 2000 presidential election, the Republican Party has been one of its biggest proponents, and Republicans have used it more successfully than the Democrats.

The Trumps took advantage of another provision of Florida law.

Eight days before the March 17 primary, a Trump representative picked up their vote-by-mail ballots at the Palm Beach County Elections Office, Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link said in March. The same person returned the ballots to the elections office the day before the primary.

That doesn’t represent any special treatment for Palm Beach County’s most famous residents. A voter can designate someone to pick up a ballot starting the week before an election day in Florida. One person may pick up two ballots for nonrelatives.