US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has suggested November’s presidential election should be delayed because of “fraudulent” voting arising from mail-in votes.
Trump raised the possibility as he made unsubstantiated allegations that increased postal voting due to Coronavirus will result in fraud.
“Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” Trump asked in a Tweet this morning.
“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,” he said.
There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud through postal voting, even in states with all-mail votes.
The president’s tweet comes after it was reported that the US economy has seen its worst quarter since the second world war.
The economy shrank by an annual rate of 32.9% between April and June, according to government figures released today.
Trump is currently lagging in the polls behind Democratic nominee Joe Biden and has been sharply criticised for his response to Covid-19, as well as his reaction to Black Lives Matter protests across the US.
The United States is by far the worst-hit country in the world, with more than 4.2 million confirmed Covid-19 cases and nearly 150,000 deaths.
Though the number of new cases has levelled off over the past few days, the US has failed to push its curve down as other nations have done through lockdowns and physical distancing.
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