Trump continues to push mixed messaging on mail-in ballots as states prepare to send them out

(WASHINGTON) — As many key battleground states prepare to send out mail-in ballots to voters for the November general election, former President Donald Trump has been escalating his false and unsubstantiated rhetoric on mail-in voting, most recently even floating possible court action in what could be a repeat of the onslaught of legal battles on election results that followed the 2020 presidential election.

But the former president’s messaging on mail-in voting has been anything but consistent with his allies at the Republican National Committee often cleaning up Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting and urging voters to embrace different voting methods as the party attempts to expand voter turnout for November.

Trump, during campaign rallies and interviews throughout this election cycle, often speaks about the need to “protect the vote,” repeating false and unsubstantiated claims that “cheating” or “fraud” occurs every time mail-in voting is involved.

“The elections are so screwed up. We have to get back in and we have to change it all,” Trump falsely said during a campaign rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, last month. “We want to go to paper ballots. We want to go to same-day voting. We want to go to citizenship papers. And we want to go to voter ID. It’s very simple. We want to get rid of mail-in voting.”

In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in July, he said, “the mail-in voting isn’t working. It’s corrupt. But until then, Republicans must win.”

At those very rallies, however, and at many other rallies over the last few months, his campaign has been actively promoting mail-in voting with staffers helping supporters register for mail-in ballots on site. Additionally, large screens at rallies show messages urging supporters to request mail-in ballots, update their voter registration or “pledge” to vote early in-person as a part of their voter registration effort.

He has also pushed mixed messaging on other forms of voting, sometimes urging voters to go out to vote during early-voting periods, while other times saying he wants to enforce same-day voting.

Trump himself voted early in the Florida Republican primary last month, casting his ballot at a polling location near his home in Palm Beach.

Most recently, Trump has more specifically directed his attacks on the United States Postal Service, making baseless statements that the agency is in a “bad shape” and is unable to process mail-in ballots ahead of Election Day in November.

“They are saying they’re in very bad shape, that they cannot deliver the mail well, and we’re relying on them,” Trump falsely claimed during an interview with a far-right outlet last week.

“We ought to go to court, bring a lawsuit, because they’re going to lose hundreds of thousands of ballots, maybe purposely, or maybe just through incompetence,” he continued.

On Thursday, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy dismissed claims from the man who appointed him to the job: “My response is like my response to everyone who says that we’re not prepared for the election — it’s that they’re wrong.

“We recognize that election officials are under an extreme amount of pressure, and will remain so for at least the next two months,” DeJoy said. “We also recognize that the American public will become increasingly alarmed if there is ongoing dialogue that continues to question the reliability of the Postal Service for the upcoming elections.”

“Let me be clear,” DeJoy continued. “The Postal Service is ready to deliver the nation’s mail-in ballots.”

DeJoy, who reiterated that the agency had been delivering ballots since 1864, said the Postal Service delivered 99.89% of ballots from voters to election officials in the 2020 election, which he called a “highly sensitive, sensationalized environment.”

At times, Trump himself has urged his supporters to go out and vote regardless of the voting method, including earlier this month, ahead of what was originally supposed to be the start of North Carolina’s mail-in voting.

“This will be the most important election in the history of our country. So whether it’s mail-in ballots, early voting, voting on the day, you got to get out and vote,” Trump told his followers in a social media video earlier this month, stressing the importance of this election.

Days later, Trump on his social media platform made a baseless claim that “20% of the Mail-In Ballots in Pennsylvania are fraudulent.” Without evidence, he also accused Democrats of cheating and called on the attorney general and the FBI to launch an investigation.

Lara Trump, the RNC co-chair and Trump’s daughter-in-law, the next day attempted to clean up his comments on CNN, saying he was referring to the 2020 election — while still not providing evidence of such fraud in 2020.

She then stressed that for this election, the party is focused on making sure voters can participate in any way they can, whether it’s by mail, early voting or in-person voting on Election Day.

“What I can tell you is we worked very hard on the ground at the RNC to make sure every voter in this country feels like when you cast a ballot, whether it’s via mail, whether it’s early voting in-person, or whether it’s on Election Day in an election office, around the country, your vote matters, and your vote counts,” Lara Trump said.

“And Donald Trump very much wants every Republican voter to vote however they feel most comfortable,” she continued.

But Republicans aren’t giving a carte-blanche blessing of the process, already launching a series of legal actions in key battleground states.

On Sept. 5, the RNC filed a lawsuit against North Carolina’s Board of Elections over a state law that governs mail-in ballot curing, claiming the state election board’s rules are “inconsistent with state law and diminishes protections for absentee ballots.”

“We have filed suit to uphold election integrity and ballot safeguards. State law lays out clear requirements, and the NCSBE must follow them — we will continue to fight for election integrity in the Old North State,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley wrote in a statement.

After a delay over Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s legal battle to remove his name from the ballot, absentee ballots are finally set to go out in North Carolina next week.

The RNC this week also launched a petition to the state Supreme Court against Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State Al Schmidt, saying the state’s instructions for voters to cast a provisional ballot if they do not follow the instructions for completing and returning mail ballots is illegal.

Under the current Pennsylvania law, some counties have created procedures to notify voters if there’s any issue with their mail-in ballot to provide them the opportunity to fix that ballot or to cast a provisional ballot in person on Election Day.

“Secretary Schmidt’s policy ignores the law and has caused great confusion to Pennsylvania voters,” Whatley wrote in a statement. “This clearly undermines election integrity, diminishes fairness for voters, and threatens to erode public confidence in our elections. We have filed suit to force election officials to follow the law in the Keystone State.”

The RNC also recently sued the city of Racine, Wisconsin, claiming a lack of Republican election inspectors hired by the city, signaling a general election full of legal battles, as Trump and his allies continue to stress the importance of “protecting the vote.”

“As the president has said, it is great to vote early, it’s great to vote by mail, absentee, and it’s great to vote on Election Day,” Whatley said in June when asked about Trump’s disparaging comments on mail-in voting. “The key is you got to make a plan.”

“We are spending a very significant amount of our time protecting the vote,” Whatley said. “We are recruiting hundreds of thousands of volunteers that we’re going to recruit and train and make sure that we deploy to serve as observers, poll workers and full judges all across the country.”

“And we want people to have a comfort level knowing that their vote is going to be preserved and it’s going to be. We protect the sanctity of the vote,” he continued. “So when people have comfort that we’re going to have election integrity, they’ll feel more comfortable voting.”

Asked for a comment, Trump’s campaign pushed early voting.

“This election cycle, President Trump, the RNC, and our campaign have been consistent and clear: vote early,” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said.

ABC News’ Lucien Bruggeman and Brittany Shepherd contributed to this report.