PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – For months, President Donal Trump has been railing against mail-in voting, calling it “fraudulent” but not presenting evidence.
On Thursday, Trump upped the ante with a tweet suggesting the possibility of delaying the November election.
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
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was clearly taken aback when he heard about the president’s suggestion to delay voting, and not convinced.
“So he’s asking that the election be delayed?” DeSantis said. “There’s been a lot, a lot, of effort that’s been put into it ... and I think Florida will be ready to go.”
In Miami-Dade and Broward counties, hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots have already been sent out, and election supervisors say they’ll be safe, secure and counted when returned.
“I can assure you that voting by mail is a safe and secure voting method,” Miami-Dade’s Supervisor of Elections Christina White said previously on Local 10′s “This Week in South Florida.”
“The beauty of election law in Florida is that voters have options,” she continued. “They can vote in the method that they feel confident in and secure in and prefer. So, whether it’s vote by mail, going during early voting or election day, voters have that choice.”
In Broward, election supervisor Pete Antonacci says he expects 60 percent of ballots to arrive by mail.
“People are a little uncomfortable showing up in person for someplace that could have crowds, so they’re availing themselves to the convenience of kitchen table voting,” he said.
The president’s trial balloon on pushing back the election never got off the ground Thursday on Capitol Hill, blasted by Republicans and Democrats alike. And, for the record, only Congress could change the election date, not the president.