US election 2020: Donald Trump has repeatedly declared without proof that postal votes are subject to fraud
ROME, Georgia / PHILADELPHIA:
President Donald Trump again questioned the integrity of the US election on Sunday, saying that a vote count going beyond election day would be a “terrible thing” and suggesting his lawyers could get involved.
Two days before Tuesday’s election and behind Democratic rival Joe Biden in opinion polls, Trump has traveled across the battlefield states in a belated quest for support, while Biden implored attendees at two rallies in the Pivotal state of Pennsylvania to get out and vote.
Americans rushed to vote early, already casting nearly 60 million mail-in ballots that could take days or weeks to be counted in some states – meaning a winner might not be declared in the hours following the closing of the polling stations on Tuesday evening.
“I don’t think it’s fair that we have to wait long after the election,” Trump told reporters ahead of a rally in North Carolina. Some states, including Pennsylvania, do not start processing mail-in votes until election day, slowing the process.
Trump has repeatedly said without proof that mail-in votes are subject to fraud, although election experts say this is rare in U.S. elections. Postal voting has been a long-standing feature of U.S. elections, and about one in four votes were cast this way in 2016.
Democrats have been pushing postal voting as a safe way to vote during the coronavirus pandemic, while Trump and Republicans count on high in-person turnout on election day.
“We go into the night – as soon as the election is over – we come in with our lawyers,” Trump told reporters without giving further explanation.
Trump has denied a report by Axios that he told confidants he would declare victory on Tuesday night if he appeared to be early, even though the Electoral College outcome is unclear. But he said it was “a terrible thing” that the ballots were counted after election day.
When asked about Axios’ report, Biden told reporters between campaign stops in Philadelphia: “The president is not going to steal this election.”
Trump, aiming to avoid becoming the first incumbent president to lose a candidacy for re-election since fellow Republican George H.W. Bush in 1992, trails Biden in national opinion polls.
But the race is considered close enough in the battlefield states that Trump can still secure the 270 votes needed to win the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the winner. Trump held rallies in Michigan, Iowa, North Carolina and Georgia, and at midnight, a late rally in Florida.
At the Opa-Locka airport in the Miami area, a “Fire Fauci” chant erupted as Trump defended his handling of the coronavirus. Anthony Fauci, a well-respected member of his coronavirus task force, has been increasingly critical of Trump’s handling of the virus.
Responding to the chant “Fire Fauci” Trump said, “Don’t tell anyone, but let me wait a bit after the election.”
Biden, the former vice president, has made several appearances in the hotly contested Pennsylvania, the state where he was born and which is crucial in his quest for the White House.
“There is nothing he can do to stop this nation from voting,” Biden said during a drive-through rally in a parking lot outside a Philadelphia church, where supporters honked their horns in approval.
“He knows that if you have a say, he doesn’t stand a chance,” Biden said.
Trump, rocked by flurries in Washington, Michigan, a city north of Detroit, wore his iconic red cap with the words “Make America Great Again” as he promised a boisterous crowd that he would lead a revival of the pandemic, which has killed more than 230,000 Americans and hammered the economy.
“I’m delivering the big American comeback, and we have no lockdowns,” Trump promised.
‘NEVER had anything like this’
Biden criticized Trump for cheering on his supporters after he harassed a campaign bus from Biden in Texas. A caravan of vehicles displaying Trump campaign flags circled the bus carrying campaign staff on a highway on Friday, forcing the campaign to cancel two events.
“We’ve never had anything like it. At least we’ve never had a president who thinks it’s a good thing,” Biden told reporters.
On Saturday, Trump retweeted a video of the incident and wrote: “I LOVE TEXAS!” In Michigan, he asked supporters if they had seen videos of “our people” on the bus.
“It was Trump Trump Trump and the American flag,” Trump said.
The FBI said on Sunday it had opened an investigation into the Texas incident.
The president then criticized the investigation by tweeting: “In my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong”.
Biden is ahead 51% to 43% nationally in the latest Reuters / Ipsos poll, conducted October 27-29. The race remains a draw in Florida, North Carolina and Arizona, according to Reuters / Ipsos polls, while Trump lags 7 percentage points in Pennsylvania and 10 points in Michigan and Wisconsin.
In her 2016 victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, the real estate developer and reality TV personality-turned-politician was propelled to the White House by victories in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, which for decades had entered in the Democratic column.
A record 92.2 million early votes were cast in person or by mail, according to the U.S. Elections Project, representing about 40% of eligible voters. The early push led Michael McDonald of the University of Florida, which administers the project, to predict a turnout of around 65% of eligible voters, the highest since 1908.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
