- Controversial GOP candidate Kari Lake is urging her supporters to use mail-in ballots.
- Lake tweeted an urgent reminder for supporters to mail in their completed ballots immediately.
- Trump has railed against mail-in voting amid his many baseless voter fraud claims.
Kari Lake, a Trump-backed gubernatorial candidate, is urging her supporters to use mail-in ballots — a form of voting that the former president has repeatedly railed against.
Lake, a former TV anchor, is running in a tight race in Arizona for the GOP nomination. She has been known to tout Trump's false claims of voter fraud and was also involved in MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's attempt to bankroll injunctions to stop the use of voting machines nationwide.
However, in a tweet this week, Lake called on her supporters to use mail-in ballots.
"URGENT. Arizona, If you have a Mail-In Ballot, fill it out and Mail it in ASAP," read Lake's tweet.
She added that she had spoken to "election experts," who informed her that the US Mail is the "safest" means to ensure that mail-in votes are counted.
Her message to supporters is a notable departure from Trump's stance on the mail-in ballot system, which he has criticized numerous times.
The former president railed against mail-in ballots even before the 2020 election, calling the process a "nightmare." He also baselessly claimed that mail-in ballots are a "scam."
In May, Trump blamed mail-in ballots for the narrow vote difference between Trump-backed candidate Mehmet Oz and his Republican Senate primary opponent David McCormick.
According to Steven M. Bellovin, a security expert at Columbia University, the security of the mail-in ballot system is just as robust as other forms of voting in the US.
Trump endorsed Lake in 2021, soon after she called for him to be added to Mount Rushmore. She also said that she would not have certified the vote if she were in office during the election.
Lake did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
Karrin Taylor Robson, Lake's opponent in the Arizona primary, was endorsed this week by former Vice President Mike Pence in what is thought to be yet another proxy war between Pence and his ex-boss, Trump.
Arizona's outgoing Republican Gov. Doug Ducey has endorsed Robson while blasting Lake for baselessly pushing Trump's election fraud claims, calling the latter "Fake Lake."
The Arizona primary is due to take place on August 2.