Postponing a presidential election isn’t as easy as just picking a new date.
As states have pushed primaries back amid the coronavirus pandemic, it is legally a lot harder to change the date of a general election, CNN reports.
During a virtual fundraiser on Thursday night, Joe Biden predicted that Trump will try to postpone the presidential election in order to win.
"Mark my words: I think he is gonna try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can't be held," Biden told his supporters.
But if Trump tries to move the date, which he hasn’t alluded to doing, it won’t be as simple as finding a new date.
General elections are governed by federal statue. That means the president alone doesn’t have the authority to change the law. Only an act of Congress can make the call.
And if Congress did agree to a date change, the 20th Amendment would also play a factor.
President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence would no longer have their jobs on Jan. 20. That would likely make Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi president following the line of succession.
And even if Trump declared martial law as a way to try to postpone the election, it would not give him the power to suspend the Constitution.