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Trump has railed against "mail-in voting" while defending "absentee voting.” Yet his own lawyers acknowledged in court documents the two are the same thing. Trump and many administration officials have utilized vote-by-mail options in the past. This includes Vice President Mike Pence, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, as well as members of Trump's family.  

Fraud in mail-in-voting? There have been 143 cases of fraud using mailed ballots over the course of 20 years or about seven to eight cases per year, nationally. Across the 50 states, there has been an average of three cases per state over the 20-year span. That is just one case per state every six or seven years or about 0.00006% of total votes cast. Seems like a secure, safe voting option to me, especially during a pandemic. 

Trump believes mail-in-voting favors Democrats. Is this true? A Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research study found that: "(1) vote-by-mail does not appear to affect either party’s share of turnout; (2) vote-by-mail does not appear to increase either party’s vote share; and (3) vote-by-mail modestly increases overall average turnout rates, in line with previous estimates.” The Stanford researchers, however, took pains to say that their findings applied to “a normally administered in-person election.” Voting in a pandemic might produce different results in part because the threat of illness might deter one group of voters from casting ballots more than it would another.  

So let’s just call it “absentee voting” from now on to keep the very stable genius happy.