Washington Post Quotes Trevor Potter on Absentee Ballots

There’s a plausible way that independent voting experts worry President Trump could try to steal the election: by blocking the counting of mail-in ballots.

Democrats are much more supportive of voting by mail than Republicans, according to recent polls. That’s partly because Trump has falsely smeared mail-in voting as subject to widespread fraud.

. . .

“It is possible that he will say, ‘We should stop counting ballots because all those absentee ballots are illegitimate,’ ” said Trevor Potter, president of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center.

“If his supporters believe that, it would be false but unfortunate in terms of the country accepting the credibility of the final election results,” said Potter, a former Republican-appointed chairman of the Federal Election Commission, who was general counsel for the presidential campaigns of the late senator John McCain (R-Ariz.).

. . .

“I’m very concerned, as we have a historic confluence of dangers here,” Potter said. “We have massive absentee balloting in states that aren’t used to that. You have postal problems, when absentee balloting relies on that. You have a postmaster general who appears to be making it difficult to vote by mail. These are all issues, combined with the possibility that normal polling places may not be able to open [because of the pandemic] or may be moved.”

Trevor Potter is also a Member of the Political Law Group at Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered.

For the full article, please visit The Washington Post's website.