- Can Donald Trump delay
the US election legally?
The mainstream says no.
I say yes.
Let me show you how.
(energetic music)
Hey, creator.
I'm Ian Corzine, your social media lawyer.
After President Trump's recent
tweet in which he suggested
that he may want to delay the US election,
a lot of creators came to me and said,
"Hey, can Donald Trump delay
the US election legally?"
My first response was, "No way."
The US Constitution vests in
Congress the exclusive power
to set the election date,
which as of this year,
is November 3, 2020.
The president has no say.
This power is exclusive to Congress.
And as a side note,
I believe that Congress
would never change the date
of this year's election.
That's because it would
take a majority vote
of the Republican Senate
and a majority vote of
the Democratic House
in order to get this change done,
and I don't think they're
gonna agree on this,
let alone anything that's going
on in our country right now.
But even if Congress
decided to change the date
of our election,
President Trump's term expires
as of January 20, 2021.
That means that if they delayed
the election past that date,
then President Trump's term
would automatically expire,
and he would not be president
of the United States.
To summarize then, under the Constitution,
the president has no
power to change the date
of the US election,
and his term automatically expires
as of January 20, 2021.
So I gave this answer to the creators
that asked it of me.
But then, I began to question myself.
Was this actually the right answer?
And the reason I began to question it
was because of that wording,
that specific wording that
President Donald Trump used
in that tweet.
He said, "properly,
securely, and safely vote".
When I thought about that,
I thought security, I thought military,
I thought, "I wonder if the president
"would ever use military or soldiers
"to affect the date of the US election?"
I was thinking about
those words in the tweet,
and I thought, "I wonder if the president
"was trying to convey a different basis
"for legal authority
to change, to postpone,
"the date of the US election?"
And then, it occurred to me,
the Insurrection Act.
This act was passed way back in the 1800s,
and it gives the power to the president
to be able to call in the US Military
onto domestic soil within
the country's borders
if a state requests it,
if a state is having a
difficulty enforcing its laws
and needs help from
the federal government,
and then if, most importantly,
if the president determines
that a constitutionally protected right
is being deprived,
is not being secured,
he can call in the military
to make sure that that
constitutional right
is being protected.
Americans' right to vote
is protected by the 15th, and 19th,
and the 26th amendments
to the US Constitution.
That could be a constitutional right
that could trigger use
of the Insurrection Act.
Could President Trump say
that Americans'
constitutionally protected right
to vote was being negatively
impacted by the illness
and the illness shutdowns,
and therefore, military
intervention was necessary
to protect our right to vote.
For example, I thought about
Wisconsin in April of 2020,
that was during the
presidential primary election,
when a lot of polling
workers didn't show up
to work because of the illness.
I was thinking that this
situation could be akin
to that with the president
on the national election.
President Trump could say that
insufficient polling workers
were denying American
citizens' right to vote,
and as a result,
he would bring in the military
to either stop people from voting
in an unfair or an
unconstitutional election,
or call in the troops
to stop the vote count.
Whatever it was, he
could bring in the troops
to stop, to delay, to
postpone this election,
based upon the allegation
that citizens' right,
their meaningful right to vote,
was being deprived.
You know, it's scary to think about,
but given all the unforeseen,
the unexpected events that we've seen
in the last six months,
I could see this happening.
I could see Donald Trump
delay the US election legally.
What do you think?
Do you think Donald Trump is going
to delay the US election?
And if he did, what
would be the aftermath?
Let me know in the comments section below.
And after that, contemplate this.
I believe that after November 3, 2020,
we're gonna have a president,
President Trump, President Biden,
we're gonna have some president.
But do you think that president
is gonna work to broaden our rights
to freedom of expression on social media,
or do you think the president's gonna work
to reduce our rights to freedom
of expression on social media?
I think you know the answer.
And if you wanna learn
more about a case study,
it's Hong Kong.
Right now, due to Chinese law,
their rights on social media
are being drastically curtailed.
If you wanna learn more,
how to protect your right to free speech
and freedom of expression on social media,
you should watch this video right here.
(soft music)
And always, as you watch,
I'm gonna be at IanCorzine.com
to answer any of your
social media law questions.
