Two of Western New York's federal representatives spoke against President Donald Trump's suggestion Thursday that, out of concern for the integrity of mail-in balloting, the November election should be postponed.
Trump on Thursday, using his official Twitter account, made unsubstantiated allegations that increased mail-in voting will result in fraud.
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. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020
Congressman Brian Higgins said in response that Trump is seeking a delay because he cannot win the coming election fairly or honestly.
"It's just a continuing effort on the part of the President, either through ignorance, or arrogance that he thinks he has authority he doesn't have," Higgins said. "He does not have the authority to change the election day."
The dates of federal elections are set by Congress and the Constitution makes no provisions
for a delay to the January 20, 2021 presidential inauguration.
Congressman Tom Reed issued the following written statement, also opposing any election delay: "Our elections should proceed as planned in November. As always, I have faith in the American people and our democratic system that we can continue to carry out our elections properly. That being said, we will have to address the purely logistical problems posed by a massive change in how votes are sourced. I hope Republicans and Democrats can come together in these unprecedented times and agree we should be doing everything we can to secure our elections and prevent fraud."
There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud through mail-in voting, even in states with all-mail votes.
WBFO forwarded a request to Congressman Chris Jacobs, via a Twitter direct message, seeking comment but did not receive a reply as of Thursday evening.