Ferguson: WA Will Fight Trump's 'Unlawful' Plan To Delay Election

SEATTLE, WA — Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson says the state will fight back if President Trump attempts to delay the election, as he threatened to do on Thursday.

Trump made headlines across the country Thursday morning with a tweet that implied that he would prefer to delay the 2020 presidential election until the pandemic had passed, citing familiar concerns about mail-in voting and voter fraud.

In the past Trump called remote voting the "biggest risk" to his reelection campaign, and his campaign and the GOP have both previously sued in attempts to stop the practice.

Of note is that mail in voting has been standard practice in Washington and four other states for years, with no reported incidents of widespread fraud. Critics also say that absentee voting is virtually the same as mail-in, in that both use the same safeguards and involve voting through the mail instead of in-person. President Trump himself has voted by mail in at least three elections, as has First Lady Melania Trump and daughter Ivanka Trump.

Trump has a long history of decrying voter fraud, but election security experts say that voter fraud is rare, even in absentee balloting.

In a statement issued Thursday afternoon, Attorney General Ferguson accused Trump of attempting to break the law by delaying the election:

"President Trump’s statement that he may unlawfully delay the November election is undemocratic, un-American, and, sadly, entirely predictable. For months, my legal team has been preparing for the possibility that the president might attempt to unlawfully delay the election. If that happens, we will see President Trump in court — and we will win."

Ferguson's office also reiterated that there is no evidence that mail-in ballots have ever increased voter fraud.

Beyond Ferguson's warning, it's unclear if the president even could do what he is claiming he may: the date of the election is set forth in federal law and would normally require a vote from Congress to change.

Related: Trump Floats Election 'Delay,' Claims Voting Fraud