Trump suggests delaying this year’s presidential election

President claims postal voting will lead to fraud – on bad day for economy

US President Donald Trump has floated the idea of a “delay” to November’s presidential election.

Mr Trump raised the possibility as he made unsubstantiated allegations that increased postal voting will result in fraud.

The dates of federal elections are set by the US Congress, and the country’s constitution makes no provisions for a delay to the January 20 2021 presidential inauguration.

Mr Trump tweeted: “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???”

His tweet came on a day of bad economic news – the government reported that the US economy shrank at a dizzying 32.9% annual rate in the April-June quarter, by far the worst quarterly plunge ever, as the coronavirus outbreak shut down businesses and sent unemployment surging to 14.7%.

There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud through postal voting, even in states with all-mail votes.

Five states already rely exclusively on postal votes and they say they have necessary safeguards in place to ensure that a hostile foreign actor does not disrupt the vote.

Election security experts say that all forms of voter fraud are rare, including absentee balloting.

Mr Trump has increasingly sought to cast doubt on November’s election and the expected surge in postal and absentee voting as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Trump is trailing in public and private polls and refused in an interview just weeks ago to commit to accept the results of the upcoming election.

Shutterstock. Donald Trump is trailing his Democratic rival Joe Biden in the polls ahead of November’s election.