The following July 30, 2020 News 8 story called Constitutional professor weighs in on Pres. Trump’s tweet about delaying election by Ryan Hughes features Constitutional Law expert and Cooley Professor Brendan Beery. The short answer is no. Get the longer story below.
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – On Twitter Thursday morning, President Donald Trump floated the idea of possibly delaying the 2020 presidential election.
“With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history,” the president posted.
“Delay the election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” the tweet asked.
On Your Side turned to Brendan T. Beery, a professor at Cooley Law School.
“It’s a very fundamental misunderstanding on how our republic is supposed to work,” Beery said.
He explained that only the U.S. Congress has the power to change the date of a presidential election; the president has no authority.
“Elections were carried out on schedule during the Civil War, during World War II, so realizing this is a public health emergency probably unlike anything in our lifetimes we’ve ever seen, nonetheless there would be no precedent at all for changing the dates of a presidential election,” he said.