Twitter adds warning to Trump tweet calling on supporters to vote twice

‘This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about civic and election integrity’

Twitter has added a warning to a tweet by Donald Trump in which the president appears to again call on supporters to try to vote twice.

“NORTH CAROLINA: To make sure your Ballot COUNTS, sign & send it in EARLY. When Polls open, go to your Polling Place to see if it was COUNTED. IF NOT, VOTE,” he wrote on Saturday morning. 

“Your signed Ballot will not count because your vote has been posted. Don’t let them illegally take your vote away from you!”

Not for the first time, Twitter felt obliged to add a warning to a tweet by the president, or members of his inner circle.

Currently, the president’s tweet is still available to view, but only after people click on a message that reads: “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about civic and election integrity. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”

North Carolina is a number of states that have started dispatching mail-in ballots amid a surge in demand from voters, amid ongoing safety concerns caused by the pandemic.

In North Carolina, which Mr Trump won in 2016 but where election polls show him currently tied with Joe Biden, is expected to send out more  than 600,000 ballots to voters in response to an unprecedented spike in requests.

Reports suggest the first wave of requests came largely from Democratic and independent voters.

Mr Trump has gone out of his way to seek to question the integrity of mail-in voting, despite there being no evidence of the fraud he alleges.

Critics see it as part of a broader effort to suppress turn voter turn-out, aware that Republicans typically do worse when more people vote.

He has even admitted as such himself.

Earlier this year, while discussing proposals by Democrats make it easier for people to vote by mail amid the pandemic, he said: “The things they had in there were crazy. They had things, levels of voting that if you’d ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” 

The Associated Press said that in 2016, one-quarter of the electorate cast votes through the mail.

This time, elections officials expect the majority of voters to do so. Wisconsin has already received nearly 100,000 more requests than it did in the 2016 election.

In Florida, 3,347,960 people requested ballots during the 2016 election. The state has already received 4,270,781 requests.