Putin falsely claims past US elections were ‘tampered’ by mail-in voting

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that the U.S. election was tampered with by mail-in voting.

“In the United States, previous elections were tampered with through mail-in voting… they bought ballots for $10, filled them out, and threw them in mailboxes without any monitoring by observers, and it is everything,” Putin said. according to Reuters.

Putin, who is candidate for re-election in Russia, provided no evidence to support its claims, Reuters reported.

If he wins the Russian election in March, as is expected, he would become the longest-serving Kremlin leader since Joseph Stalin, who died in 1953.

Putin, who warned in his televised remarks On Tuesday, the war against Ukraine could suffer an “irreparable blow”. worked to eliminate the little political opposition that remains before the elections. The Russian president is elected by secret ballot in two rounds.

In recent years, mail-in ballots have become an extremely popular voting format for many Americans, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the years since, many politicians have run for office, denouncing mail-in voting fraud. Republican voters tend to show up to the polls on Election Day, while Democratic voters turn to mail-in processes.

Former President Trump supported the claim, without evidence, that there was fraud in early and mail-in voting, which became a theme in his 2020 and 2024 presidential campaigns.

In May 2020, Trump increased his attacks on mail-in voting systems as more states sought to increase access to mail-in voting due to the pandemic. He targeted Democratic-led states for expansion to ensure security, even though experts noted there was little evidence that mail-in voting causes fraud.

In this more recent campaign, Trump encouraged Republicans to vote early. strongest support for absentee voting, ballot collection and in-person early voting. In the video released by the Republican National Committee in July, Trump said that “we must beat the far left at their own game.”

–Updated January 17 at 6:30 a.m.