President Donald Trump has been simultaneously attacking mail-in voting even as his administration's officials have been slowing down the United States Postal Service's deliveries in the months leading up to the 2020 presidential election.
New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie believes that the president is going to claim victory on election night if early results show him ahead, and then try to block the counting of any ballots that have been sent through mail.
"If Trump is leading on election night, in other words, there’s a good chance he’ll try to disrupt and delegitimize the counting process," Bouie writes. "That way, if Joe Biden pulls ahead in the days (or weeks) after voting ends — if we experience a “blue shift” like the one in 2018, in which the Democratic majority in the House grew as votes came in — the president will have given himself grounds to reject the outcome as 'fake news.'"
Because of this, Bouie believes that Democratic voters who are healthy should be willing to risk getting infected with COVID-19 and vote in person.
"The only way to prevent this scenario, or at least, rob it of the oxygen it needs to burn, is to deliver an election night lead to Biden," he argues. "This means voting in person. No, not everyone will be able to do that. But if you plan to vote against Trump and can take appropriate precautions, then some kind of hand delivery -- going to the polls or bringing your mail-in ballot to a 'drop box' -- will be the best way to protect your vote."