WILMINGTON, N.C. — President Donald Trump has long decried the effectiveness of a mail-in voting system in an attempt to undermine the public’s confidence in the upcoming election. But the President’s rhetoric reached new heights when he seemingly encouraged voters to commit fraud by casting ballots twice: once by mail, and once in person.

 Voting more than once during an election is illegal. 

During a visit to North Carolina on Wednesday the President was asked if he had confidence in the state’s mail-in voting system.

“They will vote and then they are going to have to check their vote by going to the poll and voting that way because if it tabulates then they won’t be able to do that. So, let them send it in, and let them go vote,” Trump told local affiliate WECT.

"If it's as good as they say it is, then obviously they won't be able to vote. If it isn't tabulated, they'll be able to vote. So that's the way it is. And that's what they should do," he continued.

Voting twice in North Carolina is a Class I felony.

On Thursday, President Trump seemed to clarify his statement with a series of tweets where he said voters should go to their polling places after submitting their mail-in ballots to "see whether or not your Mail In Vote has been Tabulated (Counted)."

Meanwhile, CNN reports that Facebook will be removing posts showing video of Trump talking about voting twice, saying it "violates our policies prohibiting voter fraud and we will remove it unless it is shared to correct the record.”

The day after the President’s visit to the state, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections Karen Brinson released a statement saying soliciting someone to commit voter fraud is also a crime under state law and delineated the protections in place to prevent election fraud.

“Attempting to vote twice in an election or soliciting someone to do so also is a violation of North Carolina law,” the statement read in part. “There are numerous checks in place in North Carolina that prevent people from double voting. Electronic pollbooks with information about who has already voted are used at every early voting site. If a voter tries to check in who has already voted, they will be prevented from voting a regular ballot. A voter will be offered a provisional ballot if they insist on voting, and this ballot will be researched after Election Day to determine whether it should be counted.”

While it may have been the President’s most pointed attempt to interfere in the election results, Trump has long attacked mail-in voting systems with little to no evidence to support his claims. 

In April, the President said an expansion of mail-in ballots would lead to widespread election fraud. 

"Mail ballots are a very dangerous thing for this country, because they're cheaters," Trump said during a White House briefing. "They're fraudulent in many cases."

In July, the President suggested in a tweet that the US should “delay the election” until everybody could vote in person.

In a visit to Wisconsin in mid-August, the President said that the only way he would lose the election would be if it was “rigged.” 

“Go out and vote. Do those beautiful absentee ballots, or just make sure your vote gets counted. Make sure because the only way we're going to lose this election is if the election is rigged,” Trump told his supporters at the time. “Remember that. It’s the only way we’re going to lose this election, so we have to be very careful.”

The President has ramped up his attacks as more states increase access to mail-in ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee are now suing Nevada, New Jersey and Montana for their mail-in voting initiatives. 

Experts say that there is little evidence of widespread voting fraud due to mail-in ballots.

Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Utah all relied on mail-in ballots in previous elections before the coronavirus pandemic raised concerns about in-person voting.

“Trump is simply wrong about mail-in balloting raising a ‘tremendous’ potential for fraud,” Richard L. Hasen, an elections expert at the UC Irvine School of Law, wrote in a recent Washington Post article. “While certain pockets of the country have seen their share of absentee-ballot scandals, problems are extremely rare in the five states that rely primarily on vote-by-mail, including the heavily Republican state of Utah.”

Another study from the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice found only 491 instances of mail-in voter fraud between 2000 and 2012—a period when billions of absentee ballots were cast. In 2017, the center ranked the risk of ballot fraud at a miniscule 0.00004% to 0.0009%, based on studies of past elections.

In fact, Trump himself voted by mail in the last Florida Republican primary.

The Trump administration is denying that the President’s comments in North Carolina could lead to election fraud. 

"President Trump encourages supporters to vote absentee-by-mail early, and then show up in person at the polls or the local registrar to verify that their vote has already been counted," Trump campaign official Tim Murtaugh said. "It’s amazing that the media can go from insisting that voter fraud doesn’t exist to screaming about it when President Trump points out the giant holes in the Democrats’ voting schemes.”