The argument goes that if states can cancel an election entirely, they could make a vote merely advisory too. Indeed, some strict constructionist conservatives have argued that states in fact have the legal right to withdraw the right to vote for president, even on the eve of the election. Republicans could argue that nothing in the Constitution explicitly states that legislators cannot do this. Such a law would revert to a method of selection of presidential electors by state legislatures occasionally used in the early 1800s. “In light of the pandemic, fraud in mail-in ballots, Russian interference and everything else imaginable in this troubled year, the legislature will give due attention to the vote count, but will itself decide who shall be appointed as the electors.” Step two is for Republican legislators and governors in swing states – states like Florida, Ohio and Arizona, which have 56 electors and where Republicans control the legislatures and governor’s offices – to enact a law that reads something like this: This could rally his base to support the next move. Step one would be to claim in advance that the election is not going to be fair, and that the results we get following the November 3 election will not deserve the endorsement of Americans. While throwing people off the track, his campaign could be planning to dispense with the popular vote as the way to choose electors in key swing states. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has already indicated that Congress will not waver.īut talk of delaying the election could be Trump’s latest red herring.
The reason is that Congress has set the election date, this year for November 3, and only Congress can change it. Federalist Society co-founder Steven Calabresi called the very suggestion “fascistic and… grounds for the president’s immediate impeachment.”
But the right and left agree that the president cannot delay a presidential election. President Trump last week floated the idea that the presidential election should be delayed.
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