Denies GOP voter suppression...

Corey Lewandowski denies GOP is engaging in voter suppression

The former Trump campaign manager says Republicans are merely focused on the integrity of the process.

By CAITLIN OPRYSKO

Donald Trump’s first-ever campaign manager denied the president’s reelection campaign is engaging in voter suppression as it enters election week trailing in polls.

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Corey Lewandowski brushed aside such accusations that have stemmed from Trump and the Republican Party looking to limit the collection and processing of a flood of mail-in ballots, as well as videotaping voters at a ballot drop box in Philadelphia, asserting that Republicans are looking to find voter fraud.

“Look, this is about the integrity of the process,” Lewandowski said, arguing that he didn’t believe anyone in the country should have a problem with the campaign suing to obtain the signatures of voters in Democratic-leaning Clark County, Nev.

“To verify via signature that the person who filled out the ballot is actually the one who signed it and sent it back in, I don't think anybody in America has a problem with that. Signature verification is something that takes place in most of the big states that do this well and particularly the state of Florida.”

The president as well as his party have long been fixated on what they claim is rampant voter fraud in American elections, despite the fact that voter fraud is extremely rare. Trump has especially railed against voting by mail, a practice adopted across the country this year to prevent crowding at polling places amid the coronavirus pandemic but which has also shown to have low rates of fraud.

The issue has been the subject of myriad court battles over the past few months as Republicans sue to shorten ballot return deadlines, decrease the number of ballot drop boxes or add other regulations in the midst of mail delays stemming from service cuts at USPS.

Trump in recent days has taken to suggesting that states be barred from counting any ballots after Election Day on Tuesday, despite it being a common practice for many states to count on-time mail-in votes last.

Lewandowski argued that Trump merely wants to get “as many votes in by Election Day as possible” even as “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace pointed out that several states Trump won in 2016 count votes after Election Day.

“The concern is when you have some states that don't require a postage mark on there, so we don't know when they were filled out, they don't require signature verification and some states they'll be counting nine or 10 days after the election,” he said. “I think in the most industrialized country in the world we can do better than that, Chris.”

Lewandowski added that “we know that people can vote, we know how to count quickly, so let's get it done,” predicting that Trump would notch a “resounding victory” that could be declared in several close battleground states on election night, despite warnings from state officials that it could be days before final results there are known.