Trump suggests delaying 2020 election over possible voter fraud
President Trump on Thursday suggested delaying the 2020 election, citing the possibility of inaccurate tallies and widespread fraud caused by a surge in mail-in votes.
“With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history,” the president said in a tweet.
“It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” Trump added.
The dates of presidential elections are enshrined in federal law — with only Congress empowered to make any changes. The Constitution also makes no provisions for a delay to the Jan. 20, 2021, presidential inauguration.
There has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud through mail-in voting, even in states with all-mail votes.
Five states that rely exclusively on mail-in ballots say they have ample safeguards in place to ensure that no one can disrupt the vote.
Election security experts also say that all forms of voter fraud are rare, including by absentee ballots.
“Mail-In Voting is already proving to be a catastrophic disaster. Even testing areas are way off,” the commander-in-chief said in an earlier tweet Thursday.
“The Dems talk of foreign influence in voting, but they know that Mail-In Voting is an easy way for foreign countries to enter the race. Even beyond that, there’s no accurate count!” he wrote.
The tweet comes as polls show the president trailing Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in several key states.
The president has increasingly sought to cast doubt on the upcoming election and the expected surge in mail-in and absentee votes as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump, who has called remote voting the “biggest risk” to his re-election, refused in a recent interview on Fox News to commit to accept the results of the election, recalling a similar threat he made before the 2016 vote.
“I have to see. Look … I have to see,” the president told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.” “No, I’m not going to just say ‘yes.’ I’m not going to say ‘no,’ and I didn’t last time, either.”
Last month, he told supporters in Arizona that “this will be, in my opinion, the most corrupt election in the history of our country.”
But in April, Trump ruled out the prospect of trying to change the date of the election.
“I never even thought of changing the date of the election,” he said. “Why would I do that? November 3rd. It’s a good number. No, I look forward to that election. I’m not thinking about it at all. Not at all.”
Attorney General William Barr said in an appearance before the House Judiciary Committee this week that there was “a high risk” that mail-in voting would lead to “massive” fraud.
He said he had no “reason to think” the election would be rigged, but claimed that “if you have wholesale mail-in voting, it substantially increases the risk of fraud.”
With Post wires