A sign indicates a polling station is set up in Ocala, Florida.

• US President Donald Trump cast his vote by mail in a Florida special election.
• Democrat Emily Gregory won the state house race in a district previously represented by a Republican.
• Trump insisted that mail-in voting is more susceptible to fraud.

US President Donald Trump, who has blasted mail-in ballots as “cheating”, cast his vote by mail in a Tuesday special election in Florida in which a Democrat won the district in the state legislature that includes the president’s ‌Mar-a-Lago resort.

Trump, who is pushing for national legislation to enact new regulations on voting, voted by mail ballot in the Palm Beach County election, according to county public records.

Democrat Emily Gregory won the state house race in a district previously represented by a Republican, US media projected, in the latest vote in recent months which will cause concern for Republicans ahead of November’s midterm elections.

At ⁠an event in Memphis, Tennessee on Monday, Trump leaned into his unfounded allegations that mail-in voting is more susceptible to fraud.

“Mail-in voting means mail-in cheating. I call it mail-in cheating, and we’ve got to do something about it all. And it’s part of Homeland Security,” Trump said at a roundtable on crime.

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Trump said on Sunday his fellow Republicans should not reach an agreement on funding the Department of Homeland Security until Democrats in Congress approve a bill - the SAVE America Act - that requires people registering to vote to provide proof of US citizenship.

Trump also pushed for Democratic approval of other items he wants added to the ‌bill, ⁠including banning transgender women from women’s sports, outlawing “transgender mutilation of our children”, and restricting mail-in ballots except in cases of illness, disability, military service or travel.

The White House said Trump is a resident of Palm Beach and participates in Florida elections, but lives primarily at the White House.

“As President Trump has said, the SAVE America Act has ⁠commonsense exceptions for Americans to use mail-in ballots for illness, disability, military, or travel - but universal mail-in voting should not be allowed because it’s highly susceptible to fraud,” White House spokesperson Olivia Wales said in an email.

Election fraud ⁠is rare in the US, including in voting by mail.

Routine methods and the decentralised nature of US elections make it very hard to interfere with mailed ballots, experts say.

AFP reported that a review by the Brookings Institution of decades of data collated by the right-wing Heritage Foundation turned up only 39 cases of fraud among more than 100 million ballots cast in 32 elections spanning three decades.

The picture was similar in the hotly contested battlegrounds of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

Because it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections, critics of the bill describe the legislation as a solution looking for a problem.

Even if voter fraud were a real problem, opponents say the SAVE America Act is not the answer, as it would make it harder for many Americans to vote.

They warn that millions of people - including elderly voters, lower-income Americans and people whose names have changed after marriage - may not have immediate access to documents proving citizenship.

Civil rights groups argue the requirements could lead to eligible voters being turned away from the polls.

It was not the first time ⁠Trump had voted by mail.

He voted by absentee ballot in the 2018 midterm elections, a White House spokesperson said at the time.

Trump had requested an absentee ballot, but decided to vote in person in 2020.