US President Donald Trump has explicitly called for this year’s presidential election to be delayed.
In a tweet posted at around 9am Washington DC time, Trump wrote: “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”
Trump has long been pursuing a campaign to undermine the idea of mail-in voting, behaviour which has led to social media companies adding misinformation warnings to his posts.
With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020
A study by the Washington Post of data from the Electronic Register Information Centre found that cases of fraudulent voting in states that use mail-in systems amounts to roughly 0.0025 percent%, which undercuts Trump’s argument.
A suspension of the election would amount to an effective coup d’etat by Trump, something which has long been feared by those who have criticised him for his authoritarian behaviour. The election is currently scheduled for 3 November, 2020.
Trump will face former Vice President Joe Biden, who is expected to announce his running mate in the coming days. Biden has already speculated that Trump may attempt to “steal the election.” Last month, he said: “This president is going to try to steal this election. This is the guy who said all mail-in ballots are fraudulent, voting by mail, while he sits behind a desk in the Oval Office and writes his mail-in ballot to vote in a primary.”
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