Adjunct Professor Jerry Goldfeder was quoted in an article in FactCheck.Org on the upcoming presidential election and the President’s claims of potential voter fraud due to the pandemic.
In a July 30 tweet, President Donald Trump suggested for the first time that the 2020 election should be postponed, drawing — once again — false distinctions between mail-in and absentee ballots.
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But the president has no authority to delay the election — only Congress can do that, and that’s not going to happen, Jerry H. Goldfeder, a lawyer who teaches election law at Fordham University School of Law, told us via email.
“It is beyond remote that a divided Congress would postpone the election,” Goldfeder said. “We have held 58 presidential elections — during wars and depressions— and they’ve always gone forward.“
In an article in the New York Law Journal, Goldfeder wrote: “The U.S. Constitution explicitly provides that a president’s term is four years, and the new or re-elected president is sworn in at noon on January 20th. There is no provision or precedent for a sitting president to extend his term beyond then. … Congress alone has the authority to adjust this election timeline — provided there is sufficient time for either Biden or Trump to take the oath of office at noon on Jan. 20th.”