How Trump is Using the Pandemic to Undermine the Election
by Isabella Zollner
On April 24, 2020 Joe Biden gave an interview and made a claim that most of us forgot about:
“Mark my words, I think [Trump] is going to try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held.”
The Trump Campaign responded by saying that Joe Biden was supporting “incoherent conspiracy theories.” Just as Biden predicted, Donald Trump has been demanding a delay for the general election. On July 30, 2020 Trump tweeted,
“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???”
We need to consider what would happen if Trump delayed the general election. Technically Trump’s term would still end on January 20, 2021. But if Trump managed to delay the election he will want to keep his position as president. This can be anticipated because of comments Trump has made that reveal the real reason he wants to delay the election.
I’m specifically referencing an interview with Trump and Chris Wallace in July. During this interview Wallace asks Trump if he will accept the election results and Trump responds that he isn’t sure. This may bring back memories of the 2016 election when Trump answered the same question by saying he wants to keep us in suspense.
He also goes on to explain in the 2020 interview that “I’m not a good loser, I don’t like to lose, I don’t lose too often.” I encourage you to listen to the whole interview and use the immature behavior of the President of the United States as motivation to vote and get your friends to vote.
This interview makes the true intentions behind Trump’s demand for an election delay very clear — he wants to hold on to his position. And speaking of voter fraud, let’s clear up some of the information about how it is fraudulent.
Mail in votes are a lot less reliable than other forms of voting, but not in the way that Trump is claiming. Unlike the narrative Trump is sharing that “you get thousands and thousands of people sitting in somebody’s living room signing ballots all over the place,” voter fraud is incredibly low, and voter fraud by mail is even lower. A voter fraud database from 2012 found under 500 cases of postal voter fraud among millions of votes. Oregon has had mail in voting since 2000 and has only found 14 cases of postal voter fraud. The fiction that mail in voting will lead to immense voter fraud is obviously untrue. So why is mail in voting still somewhat unreliable?
Because every time mail in voting is used, thousands of ballots are thrown away. This is allowed to happen mostly because of the inconsistent rules for counting mail in ballots. In Wisconsin, for example, the state did not track how many ballots were thrown out. And Wisconsin left the decisions about whether or not to count ballots completely up to local governments. Because of this lack of regulations many cities were allowed to unfairly throw away votes.
But Wisconsin is only one example of unreasonable mail in ballot procedures. States all over the country have ridiculous rules about their mail in ballots. Most or all of these states require ballots to be received, not just postmarked, by election day. This crazy restriction coupled with the overflow of mail the postal service is currently dealing with means that even if you fill out your ballot perfectly (a very hard thing to do) and send it in weeks before the election, it could still not be counted.
Despite the fact that many states are facing lawsuits about their unfair mail in ballot policies, we cannot be sure that these lawsuits will be resolved before the election. So check the policies your state holds about postal voting. Send in your ballot as early as possible, some people recommend even sending it in three weeks early if possible. Don’t let the unfair mail in ballot policies undermine your right to vote, and speak out against Trump’s attacks on our election.
About the Author:
After being subjected to homophobic harassment in the classroom, Isabella decided to try and use her writing to encourage others to stand up for each other and themselves. Isabella is a high school student in Lafayette, IN.
