Trump’s Attempts to Delegitimize the 2020 Election Won’t Work

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FRED WERTHEIMER’S WEEKLY NOTE | May 28, 2020freadshot

“Eligible voters should not have to choose between their votes and their lives.”

While President Trump rants and raves, falsely, that voting by mail means widespread fraud and will result in a rigged presidential election, there are signs Congress may be getting ready to send the states at least some of the substantial funding they need to run the November elections.

The coronavirus pandemic is requiring major changes in how states will administer the elections, including adjustments to deal with a dramatic increase in voting by mail and to provide safe in-person voting. This requires substantial federal funding for the states, needed by red and blue states alike.

Eligible voters should not have to choose between their votes and their lives.

The next, or fifth, relief bill for the country, the HEROES Act, passed the House this month and included $3.6 billion for the states to run the national election. The bill is awaiting Senate action.

Until recently, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been stonewalling on any new relief bill. But this week, he said there would “likely” be such a bill “in the next month or so.”  Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO), Chair of the Senate Rules Committee with jurisdiction over election funding, also said this week about more money for the states to run elections, “I think it’s likely and it’s likely necessary.”

The Brennan Center for Justice and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights have been leading the outside effort, which includes Democracy 21, to obtain the federal funding needed by the states. The Brennan Center has detailed the kind of new expenses states will have to incur in order to run effective elections.

Meanwhile, no one should kid themselves about what Trump is up to.

The President is not out to restrict voting by mail. Trump is instead undertaking an insidious attempt to delegitimize the election and set the stage for claiming, falsely, that widespread fraud occurred in the mailed ballots. Trump will have no qualms about causing a constitutional crisis by rejecting the election results or refusing to leave the White House.

It is not going to work. Our constitutional system will prevail, no matter how irrational, irresponsible, and reckless Trump is.

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