“Threat of Postponing the Presidential Election” By Lucy Gordon

         On July 30, 2020 the president threatened to postpone the upcoming election. The postponement or cancellation of most milestone events these last four months has desensitized the American public to the idea of postponing yet another major event. Why then is the idea of postponing a United States presidential election being considered such a radical and dangerous concept? Americans waiting in long lines within close proximity to each other and potentially touching the same pens and equipment as hundreds of people before them does sound like it is in violation of the CDC’s recommendations for stopping the spread of COVID-19. However, there is a valid alternative to continuing elections during this time: voting by mail. This option  limits contact with others and retains citizen’s rights to cast their ballot in an election. 

          However, the president says voting by this method would amount to “the most inaccurate & fraudulent election in history” and therefore should be postponed to when voting in-person can resume. Not only has the postponement of a United States presidential election never occurred “even during the Civil War” (2) but more importantly it is not within the president’s jurisdiction to make a decision about the date of an election. “The US Constitution grants the power to set an election date to Congress, not the president” (2). What then substantiates such a claim by the president?  The threat of fraud has been cited as fear of illegitimate votes being cast, people voting multiple times, or voting “illegally.” The president cited an article in the Washington Post published on July 16th as support for this statement. Actually, the article he cites makes the claim that it is the rate of rejection of ballots that may threaten the legitimacy of the election. Fox News reports that “votes cast by mail are less likely to be counted […] and more likely to be contested than those cast in a voting booth.” In the most recent primary “large numbers of mail ballots have been rejected because they arrived late, were missing a postmark or lacked a voter signature — as much as 19 percent [of the votes cast] in parts of Manhattan and Queens and 28 percent in parts of Brooklyn” (3) were rejected. If the problem of voting by mail is the high rate of rejection, then perhaps the criteria for rejection should be re-evaluated. Currently, the Washington Post reports “The rules can be so strict in some jurisdictions that even a stray marking or small tear in the ballot envelope can cancel someone’s vote,” (3)

         Postponing the election is not the solution to this problem. In fact, it is a major threat to the core mechanism of democracy. If mail-in ballots present such a major threat to the integrity of the democratic process, legislation to address the criteria for ballot rejections must be re-evaluated. In the meantime, the election must go forward as scheduled.

This post was written by Lucy Gordon

(1) Pilkington, Ed et al. “Trump Suggests Delaying Presidential Election As Dire Economic Data Released”. The Guardian, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/30/trump-election-delay-distraction-tweet-economic-figures. Accessed 20 Aug 2020. 

(2)“Trump Defends Tweet On Possible Election Day Delay At Contentious Press Conference”. Fox News, 2020, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-defends-tweet-on-possible-election-day-delay-at-contentious-press-conference. Accessed 20 Aug 2020.  

(3) Viebeck, E. and Ye Hee Lee, M. “Tens Of Thousands Of Mail Ballots Have Been Tossed Out In This Year’S Primaries. What Will Happen In November?”. The Washington Post, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tens-of-thousands-of-mail-ballots-have-been-tossed-out-in-this-years-primaries-what-will-happen-in-november/2020/07/16/fa5d7e96-c527-11ea-b037-f9711f89ee46_story.html. Accessed 31 August 2020.

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