President Trump on Saturday attacked the integrity of November’s election and speculated Americans will “maybe never know” the results of his race to remain in the White House.
Eighty days until Election Day, Mr. Trump preemptively cast doubt on its eventual outcome while reacting to efforts to expand mail-in voting due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“The Democrats know the 2020 Election will be a fraudulent mess,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter. “Will maybe never know who won!”
Mr. Trump referred to a tweet Republican National Committee spokesperson Elizabeth Harrington posted Friday about New Jersey allowing all voters to cast ballots by mail this fall.
A number of states are seeking to make it easier for voters to participate in the electoral process without going to polling places because of concerns caused by the coronavirus. Besides safety of the voters in the polling places, many state officials have cited concerns for their election judges, especially as many of the volunteers for those jobs are elderly citizens and hence more vulnerable to coronavirus-related complications.
Mr. Trump has led Republicans in opposing those efforts and has claimed that expanded mail-in voting will lead to rampant fraud, contrary to numerous studies finding otherwise.
“Trump’s claims are wrong, and if used to prevent states from taking the steps needed to ensure public safety during November’s election, they will be deadly wrong,” the non-partisan Brennan Center for Justice reported in April, adding that mail ballot fraud is “incredibly rare.”
“There’s simply no basis for the conspiracy theory that voting by mail causes fraud,” Federal Election Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub, a Democrat, echoed in May. “None.”
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden is slated to officially receive the Democratic nomination next week to compete as the party’s candidate in November against Mr. Trump.
Mr. Biden has selected Sen. Kamala D. Harris, California Democrat, to be his running mate.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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