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Although there are no final results from various controversial states that can decide the outcome of the US presidential election, Republican President Donald Trump announced a victory over his Democratic rival Joe Biden on Wednesday.
The premature move confirmed Democrats’ concerns for weeks that Trump would attempt to challenge the election results. This could lead to a great deal of judicial and political drama, so the election outcome will be decided by some combination of the courts, American politicians and Congress, BTA reported.
DEMANDS
Early election data shows that many more Democrats vote by mail than Republicans. In states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which don’t start counting postal ballots before Election Day, initial results seemed in favor of Trump because they counted postal ballots more slowly. Democrats have expressed fear that Trump will declare victory before all these ballots are counted, as has happened.
An electoral result with a small margin can give rise to demands related to voting and counting procedures in key states. Appeals filed in individual states could go to the Supreme Court, as happened in the 2000 Florida election, where Republican George W. Bush defeated Al Gore by just 537 votes after the nation’s highest court canceled the replay. . counting.
Trump appointed Amy Connie Barrett as Supreme Court justice just days before the election, creating a conservative 6-3 majority there that could benefit the president if the court has to rule on a contested election.
“We want the law to be applied correctly. That is why we will go to the Supreme Court. We want all voting to cease,” Trump said Wednesday, although state election laws require that all legally cast votes be counted. In many states, this usually takes days.
ELECTORAL BOARD
The US president is not elected by a majority of the national vote. According to the constitution, the candidate who obtains the majority of the 538 voters of the Electoral College becomes president.
In 2016, Trump received fewer votes than Democrat Hillary Clinton, but managed to secure 304 votes in college to 227 for her.
The candidate who wins the mass vote in a state, as a rule, wins the votes of all voters in that state. This year, voters will meet on December 14 to determine the winner. Governors generally confirm the results in their states and provide this information to Congress.
However, some scholars have described a scenario in which the governor and the legislature in a highly contested state present two different electoral results. Front-line states, such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, have Democratic governors and local legislatures are controlled by Republicans. According to lawyers, in such a scenario it is unclear whether or not Congress should accept the voters list presented by the governor.
Although most experts consider such a scenario unlikely, there is a historical precedent. The Republican-controlled Florida Legislature was debating whether to send its constituents in 2000, before the Supreme Court dismissed the Bush-Gore dispute. In 1876, three states designated “duplicate electors,” prompting Congress to pass the Electoral Determination Act in 1887.
According to this normative act, each of the houses of Congress must decide separately which of the two lists of voters it will accept. Republicans currently control the Senate and Democrats control the House of Representatives, but the electorate will be approved by the new Congress, which will be sworn in on January 3.
In the event of a disagreement between the two chambers, it is not entirely clear what is happening. Under the law, preference is given to voters approved by the “executive” of each state. Many experts interpret this to mean the governor, but others reject this interpretation. This law has never been reviewed or interpreted by a court.
One of the interpretations of the experts is to completely disqualify the disputed votes in the Electoral College, that is, to reduce the composition of the college. However, the law in question does not clarify whether in such a case the election of a president will still require 270 electoral votes (a majority of the total of 538) or a majority of the remaining votes. If, by that logic, Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes are challenged and excluded, for example, the question is whether the president can be elected by 260 votes, which will be the majority of the remaining 518.
The parties to the dispute can petition the Supreme Court to find a way out in the event of a deadlock in Congress, but it is unclear whether the court will be willing to decide how Congress should count electoral votes.
“EXTRAORDINARY ELECTIONS”
If it is decided that no candidate has obtained a majority in the Electoral College, a procedure is initiated under the 12th Amendment to the United States Constitution, known as “snap elections.” According to her, the president is chosen by the House of Representatives and the vice president, by the Senate.
The difference is that each state’s delegation to the House of Representatives receives 1 vote. Republicans currently control 26 of the 50 US delegations and Democrats control 22. One delegation is divided by an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, and another consists of 7 Democrats, 6 Republicans, and a Libertarian.
In the Senate, each senator individually votes for vice president.
This procedure is triggered in a stalemate in the College: 269 by 269 votes. There are several options that could lead to such a situation after yesterday’s elections.
Any challenge to the election must be resolved within a strictly defined period: January 20, when, according to the constitution, the term of the current president ends.
Under the Transfer of the Presidency Act, if Congress has not yet announced a new president or vice president, the Speaker of the House of Representatives will become interim president. This is currently Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California.
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