A record number of votes by mail and in person has delayed the results of the US elections, as some states did not begin counting these votes until the polls closed on Tuesday.
Fears that Donald Trump will declare an early victory and attempt to invalidate mail-in votes have already come true. He has falsely claimed that voting by mail will lead to fraud and has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses to Joe Biden. That could trigger legal and political dramas in which the presidency could be decided by some combination of the courts, state politicians, and Congress.
The decision reaches the Supreme Court
Early voting data shows that more Democrats voted by mail than Republicans. In states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin With mail-in ballots not counted until Election Day, booth votes likely favored Trump, experts say, while mail-in votes, which are counted more slowly, are expected to favor Biden.
Democrats said Trump could use early leads to declare victory on Election Night and then claim that mail-in ballots are tainted by fraud. Many millions of votes cast early to avoid crowds may not be counted. A closed election could result in judgments about the voting and counting procedures. Cases in the states could eventually reach the Supreme Court, as did the Florida results in 2000, when Republican George W Bush defeated Democrat Al Gore by 537 votes in Florida after the court stopped a recount.
2020 US Election Results – Live Updates
Trump has lobbied the Republican Senate to confirm Amy Coney Barrett as a Supreme Court Justice, creating a 6-3 conservative majority that could favor the president if the results of a contested election go to court.
Last week, the court ruled 5-3 against calls by Democrats to reinstate a six-day extension for receiving mail-in ballots in Wisconsin, a highly contested state that is seeing a spike in Covid cases. 19. Therefore, ballots received after Election Day will not be counted. Although Trump is behind Biden in national polls, the race is tighter in Wisconsin and other swing states that will determine who wins. In two other key states, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, the Supreme Court allowed votes to be counted after Election Day.
Counting of conflicting votes in the electoral college
The president of the United States is not elected by a majority of the popular vote. The candidate who obtains the majority of 538 voters, known as the Electoral College, becomes the next president. In 2016, Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, but garnered 304 electoral votes to her 227. The candidate who wins the popular vote in each state generally wins the electors of that state.
2020 U.S. Elections: Full Coverage
This year, voters meet on December 14 to cast votes. Both houses of Congress will meet on January 6 to count the votes and name the winner. Governors typically certify results in their respective states and share the information with Congress.
But some academics say the governor and legislature in a highly contested state could present two different election results. The battlefield states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina have Democratic governors and Republican-controlled legislatures. According to legal experts, it is unclear whether in a dispute, Congress should accept the governor’s electoral roll or not count the state’s electoral votes at all. Under the Electoral Counting Act, each chamber of Congress would decide separately which list of “grieving voters” to accept.
From now on, Republicans hold the Senate while Democrats control the House of Representatives, but the electoral count will be done by the new Congress, which will take office on January 3. If the two houses do not agree, it is unclear what would happen. The parties could petition the Supreme Court to resolve any deadlock in Congress. But the Electoral Counting Law has never been tested or interpreted by the courts.
House of Representatives elects the next president
None of the candidates who obtain the majority of the Electoral College votes would trigger a “contingent election” under the 12th Amendment to the Constitution. That means that the House of Representatives elects the next president, while the Senate elects the vice president, increasing the pressure on each party to win seats in both houses.
Each state delegation, made up of all the elected representatives of that state, in the House obtains only one vote. So far, Republicans control 26 of the 50 state delegations, while Democrats have 22; Pennsylvania is evenly divided, and Michigan has seven Democrats, six Republicans, and one Libertarian. If the decision rests with the House, the current composition will win the presidential election of the Republicans. Democrats will have to shift key positions to control most state delegations. New members of the House and Senate could change who controls the delegations.
In many states, the majority of the delegation is small. The Republican-controlled Florida delegation split 14-13 as ColoradoThe Democratic-controlled delegation is now at 4-3. Single-member delegations like Montana and Alaska, held by Republicans, have little chance of changing, while two-member delegations like New Hampshire and Maine could be tied if one member changes.
In the Senate, however, the members will cast their votes individually and the vice president will be elected by simple majority. The Senate is currently controlled by Republicans, but it could still pass Democrats with 22 Republican seats and 12 Democrats up for grabs in this election.
A contingent election is also held in the event of a 269-269 tie after the election; There are several plausible paths to a deadlock in 2020. Any electoral dispute in Congress would unfold before a strict deadline: January 20, when the Constitution requires the current president’s term to end. Under the Presidential Succession Act, if Congress has not yet declared a presidential or vice-presidential winner by then, the Speaker of the House would act as interim president. Nancy pelosi, a Democrat from California, is the current speaker.
On Video: US Election Results: ‘Confident’ Biden Urges Unity As Votes Are Counted
.
