Republican Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted on Monday called Donald Trump's allegations of a rigged election "irresponsible," but said he would still vote for him.
Sec @JonHusted LIVE NOW on @CNN w/ @CarolCNN discussing the security & integrity of #Ohio's elections - "It's easy to vote & hard to cheat."
"I can reassure Donald Trump that I am in charge of elections in Ohio and they’re not going to be rigged," Husted told CNN. Calling the election system one of the "bedrocks of American democracy," Husted said, "We should not be questioning it or the legitimacy of it."
He also said there was "no justification" for widespread voter fraud.
However, Husted said that he still intended to vote for Trump despite being "remorseful or regretful that he's saying things like this, which really undermine the potential he has as a candidate."
He said he hoped that Trump would change the direction of his campaign in the next few weeks, "but time is growing short," Husted said.
He had also spoken out against Trump's rigged election claims that he made two months ago. In August, Husted told Cleveland.com that "Donald Trump is wrong when he talks about the election being rigged."
On Monday, Husted touted the integrity of the electoral process and told the New York Times that it was "wrong and engaging in irresponsible rhetoric" for candidates to doubt the legitimacy of the elections without evidence.
In the wake of several sexual assault allegations against him, Trump has ramped up claims of the election being rigged by the media backing the Clinton campaign.
The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary - but also at many polling places - SAD
Several women have come forward accusing Trump of sexual misconduct after he was caught on a hot mic in 2005 implying that he sexually assaulted women by grabbing them "by the pussy."
Trump has denied the allegations, calling them "completely fabricated," "total fiction," and "100% made up."
On Sunday he tweeted, "Election is being rigged by the media, in a coordinated effort with the Clinton campaign, by putting stories that never happened into news!"
At a New Hampshire rally on Saturday, Trump said, "Remember this, it's a rigged election because you have phony people coming up with phony allegations with no witnesses whatsoever," Trump said. "The election is being rigged by corrupt media pushing completely false allegations and outright lies in an effort to elect [Clinton] president."
He continued to push the point on Monday morning.
Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive!
Trump's running mate Mike Pence tried to downplay the allegations on Sunday saying, "We will absolutely accept the results of the election," but added that "the sense of a rigged election" came from the national media's "obvious bias" against Trump.
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Other Republican officials have also tried to combat Trump's allegations.
"Security during elections and encouraging 100% voter participation in Florida are Secretary of State Ken Detzner’s top priorities," Detzner spokesperson Meredith Beatrice told BuzzFeed News.
"The Department of State takes the issue of voter fraud very seriously and diligently works with independent Supervisors of Elections to protect the rights of voters and ensure voter rolls are accurate. We have many safeguards in place and voters should feel confident that their votes will be counted," she added.
Representatives for state departments in Pennsylvania and North Carolina did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News' request for comment.