Trump’s False Attacks on Voting by Mail Stir Broad Concern

About a third of the president’s falsehoods were general warnings about widespread fraud in mail-in voting. Another 11 were specific claims about held-up mail carriers, stolen and forged ballots and dead people voting.

Figures released Wednesday from a New York Times/Siena College survey of battleground-state voters showed that 61 percent strongly or somewhat support allowing all voters to use mail-in ballots if necessary, while 37 percent strongly or somewhat oppose it.

But the poll also suggested that Mr. Trump’s message was getting through to his base: 88 percent of Biden supporters in six battleground states strongly or somewhat support mail-in voting, while 72 percent of Mr. Trump’s supporters strongly or somewhat oppose it.

Justin Clark, the senior counsel to the Trump campaign, defended the president’s words. He said that Mr. Trump was voicing legitimate concerns about how many people would have their hands on ballots with broad mail-in voting, adding, “This is all in the context of a broad Democratic push to greatly expand vote by mail four months before the general election.”

The president’s supporters have already shown that they are taking his assertions to heart. In Michigan, voters began to burn their absentee ballot applications that were sent to them by the state in an act of protest. In Alabama and Kansas, state legislatures have started to pull back from expanded vote-by-mail initiatives.

The president’s attacks on voting by mail stirred widespread concern from current and former election officials and election experts.

“His comments are exceedingly damaging to democracy, to America’s standing in the world, to voters’ confidence in our elections,” said Wendy R. Weiser, the director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan think tank. “If you are riling up supporters into a state of anger over the legitimacy of the election, they might actually take steps to try to suppress votes and to undermine the actual legitimate running of the election.”