Amid fears that Trump could prematurely declare victory, a bipartisan group of former officeholders, diplomats and national security officials unveiled a new ad Monday that will start running this week urging Americans to “count every vote.”
The spot is from the National Council on Election Integrity, which includes Daniel Coats, Trump’s former director of national intelligence. Trump has repeatedly said the winner of the election should be known on Tuesday night and questioned the appropriateness of continuing to count mail-in ballots after that, even though that is commonplace.
The ad makes no mention of Trump but says, “Let our election officials do their jobs and count every vote, just like the law requires, because this election, it isn’t up the candidates, it’s up to us.”
“Keep counting,” the narrator concludes.
The group said the spot is part of a $6 million national buy that will initially air on cable stations and then expand to include key battleground states in the post-election period.
Other Republicans on the council include former Senate majority leader Bill Frist (Tenn.), former defense secretary Chuck Hagel, former congresswoman Susan Molinari (N.Y.), former homeland security secretary Tom Ridge and former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele.
