Trump's dangerous assault on the US election system proves how well it is actually working

We should no longer be surprised at Donald Trump’s actions, given how many times the president has thrown his toys out of the pram when things aren’t going his way. However, even by his standards, his latest attempt to manipulate the political situation in America is shocking.

Yes, his bluster was always going to be part of election night – and an early declaration of victory was never out of the question – but to actively call for a stop to the counting of votes, in a tight contest, is a step beyond. Not least because those votes yet to be counted that were cast early may actually help him seal his re-election. No doubt Trump will be quick to laud the process if it turns out he is staying in the White House.  

The electoral process that Trump has done so much to malign, with unfounded comments about the validity of mail-in ballots and other parts of America’s voting machinery, has actually held up incredibly well. Given the record number of early votes to be processed and catalogued, the system is progressing exactly as it should.

The president may not like it, but the ability to count votes days after the election has been built into a number of states’ electoral system. This goes beyond the Supreme Court’s decision to allow an extended count of Pennsylvania mail-in ballots postmarked by election day, a decision that has annoyed Trump. The president's election team will know that mail-in ballots are traditionally cast in larger numbers by Democratic Party voters, with Republican voters more likely to cast their ballots on the day – and he doesn't like it.

“Millions of people voted for us tonight. A very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people,” Trump said from the East Room of the White House early on Wednesday morning. “And we won’t stand for it.” He added: “We want all voting to stop [...] We don’t want them finding any ballots at four in the morning and adding them to the list.”

That is, for want of a better term, ridiculous. Votes get counted throughout the night, and beyond. The full count is never completed on election night and while there are usually enough votes in to confirm a winner, in a tight contest that simply will not be the case. And whatever the president claims, this is a tight race.

In battleground states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, early votes aren't allowed to be processed until polling day, unlike in, say, Florida. The president will have been in full possession of these facts.

Trump was never likely to be the type of leader you need in this situation – a calming presence who calls on Americans to trust the system until every vote is counted. However, his remarks were a call for the legally cast votes of US citizens not to be recorded – a reprehensible push for disenfranchisement that is the exact opposite of what he claimed it to be. He is not defending the system as he would want his supporters to think – he is dangerously undermining it.

US democracy is working, despite Trump's intervention. All we have to do is wait patiently until the vote count is completed – however frustrating that is.