US President Donald Trump has suggested November’s presidential elections postponed, saying postal voting could lead to less accurate results. Trump added that voting should be postponed until an environment that allows “properly, securely and safely” voting is achieved.
Top Republicans including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy both dismissed the idea.
Trump does not have the authority to postpone the election, as the delay can only be approved by Congress. The president does not have direct power over the two houses of Congress.
“Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” the US President had tweeted on Thursday.
However, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo refused to consider Trump’s suggestion. When questioned by reporters on whether a president could delay an election, he said he would not “enter a legal judgement on the fly”.
“Never in the history of the country, through wars, depressions and the Civil War, have we ever not had a federally scheduled election on time,” he said in a TV interview.
However, in an evening conference, Trump has now refused that he backed the delay. “I don’t want a delay. I want to have the election,” he said.
“But I also don’t want to have to wait for three months and then find out that the ballots are all missing and the election doesn’t mean anything,” he added.
Trump, meanwhile, has always disapproved of mail-in voting, which he said would be inaccurate and susceptible to fraud
Taking to Twitter, he wrote, “universal mail-in voting” would make November’s vote the “most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history” and a “great embarrassment to the USA”.
“With Universal Mail-In voting 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???”
