‘Cheat at your own peril’: Trump warns against voter fraud and threatens ‘maximum penalties’ for anyone caught swindling at the polls
Trump issued a warning against voter fraud on Saturday ahead of midterms
Warning echos his previous claims that millions voted illegally in 2016
Early voting has already begun in many states ahead of election November 6
By KEITH GRIFFITH
DAILYMAIL.COM
21 October 2018
President Donald Trump has warned against voter fraud, threatening ‘maximum penalties’ for anyone caught cheating at the polls.
‘All levels of government and Law Enforcement are watching carefully for VOTER FRAUD, including during EARLY VOTING,’ Trump wrote in a tweet on Saturday evening.
‘Cheat at your own peril. Violators will be subject to maximum penalties, both civil and criminal!,’ he continued.
Early voting has already begun in a number of key states, including Nevada, where Trump spoke on Saturday afternoon at a rally in Elko, wrapping up his barnstormer tour of western states.
Trump’s concern over voter fraud echos his remarks after the 2016 election, when he claimed without evidence that millions of people had voted illegally.
The President convened at Voter Fraud Commission last year, but disbanded it in January, claiming that states were refusing to provide commissioners with data needed to proceed.
There were reports that the commission had turned up scant evidence of the kind of widespread voter fraud Trump claimed, however.
Still, there have been investigations and prosecutions of voter fraud violations on a more limited scale in recent months.
In August, the U.S. attorney’s office in Raleigh announced that 19 foreign nationals had been charged with registering to vote or casting ballots illegally because they weren’t U.S. citizens.
More than half were indicted by a grand jury in Wilmington, according to an August 24 news release from U.S. Attorney Bobby Higdon’s office.
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