Would Trump Try to Postpone The Presidential Election?

If one reads this headline one might be inclined to think I'm engaging in a conspiracy theory. Quite the contrary. I pose the question because of an article by Laurie Garrett in yesterday's edition of Foreign Policy where she calls for the cancellation of the presidential campaign (though not the election itself) due to the Coronavirus. Citing recent elections in Iran, Garrett argues:


Iran offers an especially chilling cautionary tale. Its first identified cases were seen in hospitals in early February, and two deaths were announced on Feb. 19. But the government proceeded with the robust, nationwide celebrations of the Iranian revolution on Feb. 11 and national elections on Feb. 21. Both events involved massive crowds, and New Yorker writer Robin Wright quoted a local health-policy expert as saying, “It was the political decision that led to this outbreak in Iran.”
Epidemiologists estimate that around the time crowds lined up to vote, Iran already had more than 18,000 COVID-19 cases. Today about 10 percent of Iran’s parliamentarians are infected, several officials in the ayatollah’s ruling circle are sick or have died of the coronavirus, and the country has the third-largest epidemic in the world, after China and Italy. While Iranian officials may not have recognized the scale of their COVID-19 crisis when the Feb. 11 celebrations took place, they certainly knew the elections 10 days later posed a hazard of expanding their epidemic.

What would a U.S. presidential election look like without crowded polling stations, boisterous mass rallies, raucous conventions, and their days of side parties, glad-handing, and baby-kissing? It’s time we found out, but for now the presidential campaigns are standing in the way. The Trump campaign so far insists that no changes in either rallies or the Republican convention will be made, regardless of the epidemic. Many of his supporters, including members of the American Christian Union, continue to attend very large evangelical gatherings and believe that the arrival of COVID-19 is biblically predicted, and their faith will protect them. Some are marketing what look like rock-band tour T-shirts saying, “COVID-19 Media Hype Pandemic World Tour 2020. Mainstream Media: Keeping you scared with propaganda since 1987.”

I want to be clear in emphasizing that Garrett isn't calling for the election itself to be cancelled. Garrett calls for "a heavy emphasis on mail ballots" and "social distancing" at polling stations by which voters should be kept three feet apart. I'm not sure how practical the latter approach is considering that voters in California and Texas waited hours to vote on Super Tuesday. Perhaps this could be addressed by extending voting hours on election day or spread balloting over several days in highly populated areas to minimize person to person contact.


Garrett is clear in arguing that she is calling for a suspension of campaigning rather than the election itself. But those lines can easily be blurred especially by someone as demagogic as Donald Trump. Although Trump's rallies are proceeding apace, it is not inconceivable that he would float the idea of postponing the presidential election under the guise of a public health measure or national security. Mind you I only see him doing such a thing if Joe Biden is leading him in the polls by double digits and his own internal polling tells him that he is underwater.


Of course, President Trump (nor any other President) has the authority to postpone or cancel presidential elections. That power is vested in Congress via Article 2, Section 1, Clause 4 of the U.S. Constitution. So long as Democrats control the House of Representatives they aren't going to ask, "How high?" when Trump demands they jump. But the same cannot be said of Republicans. I can easily imagine the Jim Jordans, Matt Gaetzs and Doug Collins of the world supporting a postponement of the election if Trump proposed it.


Notwithstanding the fact that Article 2 gives Congress the power to determine when we vote, let us never forget that less than six months have passed since President Trump declared Article II gave him the "right to do whatever I want." It is not beyond the realm of possibility that Trump would try to exercise the powers he believes he possesses. Especially if it guarantees that he remains in the White House.