Donald Trump has suggested a delay to November’s presidential election, claiming it will be the “most inaccurate and fraudulent in history”.
However, election dates are set by the US Congress and are enshrined in federal law – meaning they would require an act of Congress to change.
There are also no constitutional provisions for a delay to the presidential inauguration in January 2021.
Mr Trump – who is trailing presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in the polls – floated the idea of a delay after criticising the country’s plans for increased postal voting amid the coronavirus pandemic.
He wrote on Twitter: “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???”
The tweet came on the same day the US economy shrank at a rate of 32.9% in the April-June quarter – by far the worst quarterly plunge ever.
Even in states with all-mail votes, there is no evidence that postal voting will result in widespread voter fraud.
Security experts say that all forms of voter fraud are rare, including absentee balloting.
Mr Trump has called remote voting options the “biggest risk” to his re-election and has increasingly sought to cast doubt on the November vote.
Last month, he told supporters in Arizona that “this will be, in my opinion, the most corrupt election in the history of our country”.
And in a recent interview with Fox News, Mr Trump refused to commit to accepting the results of November’s election.
At a national Covid-19 briefing Trump yesterday (July 29) also compared his approval rating with the medical expert Anthony Fauci, who’s is higher than the presidents.
Adding “And he’s got this high approval rating. So why don’t I have a high approval rating and the administration with respect to the virus? We should have a very high (approval rating).
“So it sort of is curious, a man works for us, and yet they’re highly thought of and nobody likes me. It can only be my personality,”
