Lee County supervisor says delaying the election won’t happen

President Donald Trump suggested delaying the presidential election in a tweet Thursday morning. He expressed concern mail-in voting will result in “the most inaccurate and fraudulent” election in history.

However, federal law dating back to 1845 would prevent a delay of Election Day in November. Congress would have to change the date, and Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida quickly rejected the idea.

The president believes mail-in voting could be ripe for fraud, but Tommy Doyle, the Lee County supervisor of elections, said that’s not true.

“No election that I can remember or I’ve ever read about has been postponed because of any pandemic or any wars,” Doyle said.

Doyle knows the election is a go, so he will continue to push vote-by-mail as a safe and secure way to cast your ballot.

“They think it’s fraudulent because of what the president has said. They don’t believe that we’re counting them,” Doyle said. “You hear all these stories about how people can make copies of the ballots and send them in … it’s just impossible.”

We put a poll on Facebook asking whether you support an election delay. More than 4,700 of you have already weighed in, with a large majority against pushing back Election Day. Some are still skeptical.

Barbara Howard said there will be widespread cheating by Democrats whenever Election Day is held.

Brian Sudano said he supports pushing it back “as long as it doesn’t delay the actual inauguration day.”

Dawn Eisenmenn is against the delay. She said, “He’s pushing to open schools and businesses but wants voting delayed?”

Jessica England said, “He’s scared and trying to distract, as usual.”

Doyle said Lee County makes it easy to check online to see when your mail-in ballot is received and counted. If you plan to vote in person, he said to be patient as the county is currently short 1,000 poll workers.