Trump lays groundwork for calling US elections 'fraud' if he loses; makes 'delay' U-turn

Just days ago, US President Donald Trump sparked a political firestorm as he suggested that the upcoming November presidential elections should be postponed on account of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. However, he recently took to Twitter to defend his suggestion. Trump clarified that he does not want the elections to be delayed, but expressed apprehension that counting of mailed ballots could take weeks and hamper the results, leading to a compromised poll. 

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The US presidential elections are set to be held on November 3 and with plunging approval ratings, Trump for the first time openly floated the idea of postponing it. While citing irregularities in the mail-in vote, the US President also told reporters at a news conference that he doesn’t want to delay, but 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. Trump, in another tweet, also said that the mail-in voting is already proving to be ‘catastrophic disaster’. 

He also took a dig at Democrats, who have repeatedly raised concerns over foreign interference in US elections. He said that the mail-in voting would make it easier for other nations to interfere in the race of White House. Further, he also added that the postal voting does not provide an ‘accurate account’. 

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Six states to hold ‘all-mail’ ballot elections 

Meanwhile, the Democrats have been pushing for mail-in votes. At least six US states also revealed the plans of holding ‘all-mail’ ballot elections in November including California, Utah, Hawaii, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. However, Trump expressed fear that this might be rigged and the counting of votes itself might take a long time and the results would not be declared on the night on November 3, which usually happens. 

The mail-in voting involves the states to send automated postal ballots to all the registered voters which then have to be returned by the citizens or dropped off on the election day. While there is no evidence of any widespread fraud in the mail-in votes, critics of this method of conducting ballots have reportedly argued that citizens can vote more than once through absentee ballots and in person. Trump had previously also said that there was a risk of ‘thousands and thousands of people’ who are sitting in their homes and signing ballots ‘all over the place’. 

(Image: AP) 

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