The Biden administration will allow Iran — designated as a state sponsor of terrorism since 1984 — to set up more than 30 absentee voter stations in America in the upcoming presidential election this Friday to replace President Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May. 

Iran’s rigged election includes six candidates who were cherry-picked by the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, the Sun reported, after more than 80 others had attempted to join the race. 

An Iranian Foreign Ministry director, Alireza Mahmoudi, said that Tehran is planning to set up the stations at Washington and New York, Voice of America reported, as Iran says that America accounts for 30 percent of its overseas population — more than any other country.

For years, Iran’s repressive government has led to a surge in emigration, the Migration Policy Institute notes, and while Iran’s population doubled from 1979 to 2019, the number of emigrants grew threefold. 

“Calling out the Islamic Republic’s rigged elections while also permitting it to take place on U.S. soil is not only contradictory but also sends the wrong message to the Iranian people who have boycotted the regime’s sham elections,” a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Janatan Sayeh, said.

“Instead,” Mr. Sayeh added, “the United States should join Canada and Iran’s civil society in curbing the regime’s effort to falsely portray itself as legitimate and popular amongst its people.”

America should be standing with the Iranian people rather than their authoritarian government, a Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior fellow, Behnam Ben Taleblu, said. 

“For almost a decade, Iranians have been taking to the streets not for reform but for wholesale revolution against the structure of power in Tehran,” he noted. “This phenomenon is coterminous with historic lows in presidential and parliamentary election turnout.” 

The Biden administration is citing the ballot stations being allowed in both 2021 and under President Trump in 2017, VOA reported. 

“We have no expectations that Iran’s election will be free or fair,” a State Department representative tells the Sun, adding that foreign governments carrying out election activities in America must follow regulations.

“We respect the right of Iranian citizens and the diaspora protesting Iran’s elections,” the representative added. “The Iranians have always conducted polling activity in the United States; this is not new.”

The State Department’s counterterrorism coordinator, Elizabeth Richard, warned earlier this year that Iran has “long been directly involved in attack plotting against the U.S. homeland and U.S. personnel and activities” and said recent years have seen a “rise in plotting attacks against American citizens or on American soil.” 

“Iran also continues to support a range of proxies, who are engaged in terrorist plots and activities in the Middle East and beyond,” she wrote in a statement before the House Homeland Security Committee. Hamas would not have been able to carry out its devastating October 7 terrorist attack without Iran’s long-time assistance, funding, and training.”