Yesterday afternoon, American president Donald Trump suggested on Twitter to postpone this year’s presidential election, but later in the day, at a press conference, he said he didn’t want to. However, he remains concerned about voting by post.
“I want an election and a result, much, much more than you,” Trump told reporters in the White House. “I don’t want to delay. I want to hold the election. But I do not want to wait three months and then find out that the ballots are all missing, and the elections mean nothing.”
Trump quoted recent media reports on possible problems with post-issued ballots arriving late and said it could take weeks, months or even years to resolve this.
“Do I want to see a date change? No, but I don’t want to see unfair elections,” he said.
Trump has been criticizing votes by post for a long time. He described this as extremely fraud-prone and said that foreign powers can print ballots themselves. According to the American media, there has never been any evidence that large-scale tampering is carried out when people can vote by mail.
A president cannot simply postpone elections, said correspondent Erik Mouthaan earlier in a response to Trump’s tweet.
“To do so, he must amend the electoral law. And the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives will not agree to that. Trump could possibly invoke an emergency regulation to circumvent that law, but that will lead to a great deal of criticism and litigation.”
The presidential elections in the United States are held on 3 November. Trump is likely to take on the Democratic candidate Joe Biden, who will lead the polls.
About the author: Matthew Johnson
Matthew Johnson, a small tech business owner retired and found his passion in journalism.
