--- description: President Donald Trump floated the idea of delaying the 2020 presidential election—but only Congress has the authority to do so. title: Donald Trump Suggests Delaying 2020 Election image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f3f8425cea68c78/698a10dc457a52c389d64401/GettyImages-1260710664.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [2020 Election](/tag/2020-election/) ## 2020 Election Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Trump Suggests Delaying 2020 Election, Claiming It Will Be Fraudulent Without Evidence  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Updated: Dec 12, 2023 5:37 PM CUTPublished: Jul 30, 2020 1:57 PM CUT  U.S. President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn after he landing aboard Marine One at the White House July 27, 2020. U.S. President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn after he landing aboard Marine One at the White House July 27, 2020.Alex Wong—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Updated: Dec 12, 2023 5:37 PM CUTPublished: Jul 30, 2020 1:57 PM CUT President Donald Trump suggested delaying the 2020 presidential election on Thursday, claiming without evidence that the vote will be “fraudulent.” “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history,” Trump [tweeted](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1288818160389558273 "undefined") on July 30\. “It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” Trump does not have the power to unilaterally change the date of the election, and there is no evidence that mail-in voting leads to widespread voter fraud, or that it benefits one political party over the other. Trump’s tweet came just minutes after the Commerce Department announced that the U.S. economy shrank at a 33% annual rate in the April-June quarter, the worst quarterly drop on record. “Trump’s threat is nothing more than a desperate attempt to distract from today’s devastating economic numbers that make it clear his failed response to the coronavirus has tanked the U.S. economy and caused tens of millions of Americans to lose their jobs,” said Lily Adams, spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee. **Read More:** [Donald Trump Is Waging War on Vote-By-Mail. The Facts Don’t Support It](https://time.com/5843978/donald-trump-vote-by-mail/ "undefined") Trump has begun to cast doubt on the results of the November election [as he trails presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden](https://time.com/5872673/donald-trump-campaign-florida-biden/ "undefined") in most national and swing state polls. He suggested in an interview with Fox News in mid-July that mail-in voting would “rig” the election and that he might not accept the results. Nevertheless, while Trump promotes the myth of widespread voter fraud, he lacks the power to move the date of the election. That is up to Congress, and it would need to change a federal law from 1845 to do so. Even if the date were to be changed — which is highly unlikely, given the fact that Democrats control the House — the Constitution specifies the end of a presidential term is on January 20th. Unless there is a constitutional amendment, Trump’s first term will expire on January 20, 2021. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the daily D.C. Brief newsletter._](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/politics?source=dc%5Farticle "undefined") In response to Trump’s tweet, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi [tweeted](https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1288847692173475842 "undefined") the relevant passage from the Constitution that gives Congress the power over the date of the election: “Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution states: “The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States,” she wrote. Even Republicans on the Hill pushed back against Trump’s tweet Thursday. “I think election fraud is a serious problem and we need to fight it and stop it. But no, we should not delay the election,” said Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. “I don’t believe we should delay the elections,” said South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. Before the pandemic, five states conducted all-mail elections, and three gave counties the ability to determine their rules, [according to the National Conference of State Legislatures](https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vopp-table-1-states-with-no-excuse-absentee-voting.aspx "undefined"). Now amid COVID-19 safety concerns, other states are making vote-by-mail more accessible. California has gone the furthest, and [plans to distribute](https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/05/08/governor-newsom-issues-executive-order-to-protect-public-health-by-mailing-every-registered-voter-a-ballot-ahead-of-the-november-general-election/ "undefined") ballots to all of its registered voters. “There has to be a sea change in our thinking there,” former Attorney General Eric Holder [told TIME](https://time.com/5820622/elections-coronavirus-eric-holder/ "undefined") about voting during a pandemic. “Allow people to access their primary American right by voting at home. It’s not as if this is an untried concept. Oregon has been doing this for years.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5873615/donald-trump-delaying-election/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5873615/donald-trump-delaying-election/"},"headline":"Trump Suggests Delaying 2020 Election, Claiming It Will Be Fraudulent Without Evidence","datePublished":"2020-07-30T13:57:12.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T17:37:09.000Z","description":"Trump claimed, without evidence, that the vote will be 'fraudulent'","url":"https://time.com/5873615/donald-trump-delaying-election/","keywords":["2020 Election","News"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f3f8425cea68c78/698a10dc457a52c389d64401/GettyImages-1260710664.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f3f8425cea68c78/698a10dc457a52c389d64401/GettyImages-1260710664.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Returns To The White House","caption":"President Trump Returns To The White House","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2020-election/","name":"2020 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5873615/donald-trump-delaying-election/","name":"Trump Suggests Delaying 2020 Election, Claiming It Will Be Fraudulent Without Evidence"}}]}] ```