From claiming mailmen are "selling the ballots" to arguing that mail ballots are being "dumped in rivers," Trump ramped up his assault on mail-voting.
WASHINGTON – Voting rights experts sounded the alarm over outrageous claims President Donald Trump made about mail-in voting during Tuesday night's presidential debate and his refusal to say that he would accept election results.
From claiming  mail carriers in West Virginia are "selling the ballots" to arguing that mail ballots are being "dumped in rivers" and "creeks," Trump ramped up his yearlong assault on mail-in voting with misleading and conspiratorial statements in his first debate against Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
"This is not going to end well," Trump warned, continuing his long line of attacks about mail-in voting throughout the campaign intended to cast doubt over the legitimacy of the November election.
He also warned he could challenge the legitimacy of mail-in ballots to the Supreme Court to settle the election.
Trump claimed his objection to mail-in voting is only with "unsolicited" mail ballots, adding that they're "sending millions of ballots all over the country.".
More: Donald Trump keeps blasting 'universal' mail voting.
Fox News reported three trays of mail that included some absentee ballots were found in a ditch – which Trump may have been referencing when he said "creek" – in Outagamie County, Wisconsin.
Seven of the ballots were cast for Trump.
Norden pointed to several security measures in place to ensure that mail-in ballots cast by voters make it to election officials: representative of both parties are assigned to monitor absentee ballots; a process that exists to ensure the number of voters who sent back ballots matches the number counted; and systems that allow voters to track their ballots after returning it.
Trump singled out West Virginia, saying, "Take a look at West Virginia, mailmen selling the ballots.
The president was referencing a case from July in which a postal carrier in Pendleton County, West Virginia, pleaded guilty to mail and election fraud for changing the political affiliation on five voter absentee ballots applications – not ballots – from Democrat to Republican during the state's primary.
More: West Virginia mail carrier guilty of election fraud after altering ballot requests to Republican.
The system worked, and we were able to rapidly assure the voters of West Virginia that the election was secure.".
“It’s plain wrong that President Trump would mislead Americans to think mail-in voter fraud is happening in West Virginia," Manchin.
Assistance Election Commission, 318,728 absentee ballots, around 1%, were rejected in the 2016 presidential election
It was safeguards designed to ensure the authenticity of absentee ballots that led to 1% of them getting rejected in 2016. Rejected mail ballots are usually the result of user error by the voter, not fraud
Trump bemoaned how some states allow mail-in ballots to be received days after the election
But Trump did not mention that mail-in ballots in all states must still be postmarked by Election Day – and, in many states, days before Election Day
As he railed on "unsolicited" mail-in ballots, Trump brought up a recent case in which voters in a "Democrat area" received two ballots
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