In a tweet this morning, President Trump proposed delaying the November elections, arguing that a mail-in election would be the most “INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history.”
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???
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020
President Trump has been a vocal opponent of mail-in voting in recent months. At a White House press briefing in May, he repeatedly called the process corrupt.
“Now mail ballots, they cheat. They’re a very dangerous thing for this country, because they’re cheaters. They’re fraudulent in many cases…The mailed ballots are corrupt, in my opinion,” President Trump said.
In the tweet, the President derided mail-in voting, but approved the use of absentee voting.
Wisconsin technically uses absentee voting in order to vote by mail and a few states, like Washington, have been voting exclusively by mail for 9 years.
But while states do differentiate between absentee and mail-in voting, according to Lonna Atkison, a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of New Mexico, they’re essentially the same thing.
“Functionally, there’s no difference,” she says. “It’s really just a matter of nomenclature and which states started absentee voting when. Anything that happens prior to election day can be considered early voting or vote-by-mail.”
To reschedule the election, the President would require congressional support. But, that’s unlikely, as the House of Representatives is currently controlled by Democrats, many of whom have already voiced opposition to the President’s tweet.
So far, six of Wisconsin’s eight Representatives in the House have come out against Trump’s recommendation. Republican Representative Ron Kind has yet to issue a statement on the tweet.
“Some people say it’s his dry sense of humor,” says Wisconsin U.S. Representative Glenn Grothman.
Responding to the President on Twitter, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, of Wisconsin, wrote that “American people are going to vote and take back our Democracy to bring about the change they want and need.”
No @realDonaldTrump, the election is not going to be delayed. The American people are going to vote and take back our Democracy to bring about the change they want and need.
— Sen. Tammy Baldwin (@SenatorBaldwin) July 30, 2020
In emails to WORT, four Wisconsin Republican Congressmen said they didn’t support suspending voting.
Rep. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., representing Milwaukee’s northern and western suburbs, said that the twentieth amendment made clear that the President does not have the authority to push back an election. That amendment dictates that the term of the President and Vice President must end on the 20th day of January after the election.
Congressman Mike Gallagher, representing Green Bay and surrounding areas, said that the government’s priority should be to ensure a safe voting process on November 3rd.
And Representative Tom Tiffany, of northwestern Wisconsin, wrote “It would be misguided to postpone the November election just as it was misguided for Governor Evers to postpone the date of my special election this Spring.”
Governor Evers concurred with Tiffany’s perspective in a press conference earlier today. Evers previously attempted to push back Wisconsin’s April Elections to June, but was stopped by the state’s Supreme Court.
“But the November election for the President of the United States, by law, would need to be changed by Congress,” he said. “Don’t see that happening. Frankly, just bringing it up is breathtaking in and of itself. The President has gotten push-back on that , so it’s unlikely he’ll be talking about it any more.”
Glad I was able to get the very dishonest LameStream Media to finally start talking about the RISKS to our Democracy from dangerous Universal Mail-In-Voting (not Absentee Voting, which I totally support!).
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020
The presidential election isn’t the only thing on the ballot this fall. Voters will also decide who will be their next Congressperson, State Representative, State Senator in even-numbered seats, and District Attorney. Voters in Madison will also see two ballot referenda to fund the Madison school district.
