'I hope it's a fair election': Trump won't commit to not declaring election win prematurely
President Donald Trump Tuesday night refused to pledge that he won’t declare victory prematurely until the election is independently certified and all ballots counted while Democratic nominee Joe Biden pledged that he would wait.
The former vice president also predicted that Trump would accept the election results, too, regardless what he says.
The candidates were responding to a question at the end of Tuesday's presidential debate posed by moderator Chris Wallace, who noted that it could take days or weeks to count all ballots because of the high volume of mail-in ballots expected during the coronavirus pandemic.
Wallace asked whether they would commit to urge their supporters to "stay calm during this extended period" and pledge to not claim victory early.
"I'm urging my supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully because that's what has to happen,” Trump said, declining to commit. “I hope it's a fair election. If it's a fair election, I'm 100% on board. But if I see tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, I can't go along with that."
Mail-ballots, which Trump has leveled baseless claims of fraud against for months, are likely to skew for Biden because Democratic voters have requested far more mail-ballots than Republican voters.
Biden immediately agreed to refrain from claiming victory early. "Yes," he said, later adding, "No one has established at all that there is fraud related to mail-in ballots, that somehow it's a fraudulent process."
Biden went on: "He has no idea what he's talking about. Here's the deal. The fact is, I will accept it, and he will too. You know why? Because once the winner is declared after all the ballots are counted, all the votes are counted, that'll be the end of it."
"If it's me, in fact, fine. If it's not me, I'll support the outcome."
Trump has claimed without evidence for months that mail-in voting will lead to widespread voter fraud that will benefit Biden and Democrats. During Tuesday's debate, he also said would seek to challenge an election dispute about mail ballots to the Supreme Court.
“I think I’m counting on them to look at the ballots – definitely,” Trump said.
Trump's unwillingness to concede an election loss comes one week after he would not commit to a peaceful transfer of power.
Defending the method of mail-voting, Biden urged his supporters to ignore Trump’s claims of fraud, telling them the president is seeking to get them to stay home on Election Day.
“He sits behind the Resolute Desk and sends his ballot to Florida,” Biden said, referring to Trump's own history of voting by mail.
"This is all about trying to dissuade people from voting because he's trying to scare people into thinking that it's not going to be legitimate. “Show up and vote. “You will determine the outcome of this election. Vote. Vote. Vote.”
Biden added: “He cannot stop you from being able to determine the outcome of this election.”
Trump called mail-voting a “disaster,” pointing to "millions" of unsolicited mail-ballots being mailed to voters across the country.
Yet in the vast majority of states, including nearly every battleground state, voters must request mail ballots.
Only nine states and the District of Columbia are holding universal mail-in elections – in which ballots are automatically mailed unsolicited to all registered voters without needing to first request one. Five of those states planned to hold all-mail elections even before the pandemic and only one of those states – Nevada – is considered a swing state in in the race for president.
Reach Joey Garrison on Twitter @joeygarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Presidential debate: Trump won't commit to not declaring premature win