US Elections: What’s Behind Donald Trump’s Refusal to Concede? For Republicans, the end game is Georgia and control of the Senate

The world may have expected the chaos and uncertainty of the US presidential election to end when Joe Biden was declared the winner last weekend. But these are not normal times and Donald Trump is not a conventional president.

The concessions that used to be part of the political process have been replaced by baseless allegations of electoral fraud and election theft. loud and capitalized screams on Twitter and plans for a “MAGA Million March” in Washington.

The courts are the right place for candidates to challenge election results. But due process requires evidence of illegality, and so far the Trump campaign has produced very little.

So how long can Trump fix things, and more importantly, what is the endgame?

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More lawsuits are filed, with little chance of success

Lawsuits can be filed for a variety of reasons after an election: violations of state law by local election officials, discrimination against voters, political manipulation of the outcome, or irregularities in the vote counting process.

The Trump campaign has filed numerous lawsuits in state and federal courts. Some challenges in Georgia and Michigan were quickly scrapped.

In a case filed in Pennsylvania, Republicans tried to stop the counting of votes in Philadelphia on the grounds that Trump campaign officials were not allowed to get close enough to the ballot counting process.

When questioned by the judge, Trump’s campaign lawyers were forced to admit that there was a “non-zero number” of Republican observers present. The judge, clearly exasperated, responded by asking, “I’m sorry, so what’s your problem?”

In another filing in federal court in Pennsylvania, the Trump campaign alleges that voting by mail goes against the equal protection clause of the Constitution, a claim destined to fail.

The most interesting case, and perhaps the most viable, concerns whether a state court can extend the time limit for ballots to arrive by mail.

In this case, the Trump campaign challenged a decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to allow mail-in votes received to be counted up to three days after Election Day.

The United States Supreme Court twice refused to stop the counting of these votes, but ordered the ballots to be segregated, leaving the door open for a challenge after the elections.

A group of Republican attorneys general filed a brief in the US Supreme Court this week urging it to take up the case.

Amy Coney Barrett, the newly appointed Supreme Court Justice, was not involved in the previous decisions, and it remains to be seen whether her vote would change the outcome if the case went to court.

However, this may all be a moot point, as there are likely not enough late-coming ballots for Trump to fill the sizable gap with Biden in the state.

The attorney general enters the fray

Attorney General William Barr also inserted the Justice Department into the post-election drama, authorizing investigations by US prosecutors into alleged nationwide election fraud. The move outraged the top official in charge of electoral fraud investigations, prompting him to resign.

The Justice Department has historically stayed out of elections, a policy Barr criticized in his memo, saying that “such a passive and delayed compliance approach can result in situations where electoral misconduct cannot be rectified realistic”.

The radical change of the department is important for several reasons. It changes the longstanding practice, as Barr himself admits. The general practice, he wrote, had been to advise attorneys that “open investigative action should not normally be taken until the election in question has concluded, its results certified, and all electoral counts and contests are concluded.”

Of course, Barr has ingratiated himself with Trump before, most notably in his 2018 memo to the Justice Department expressing concern about the Mueller investigation.

Many had wondered why Barr had been unusually quiet for so long in the elections. It seems that he has returned and is willing to support Trump and the Republican cause.

The end game: Georgia and the US Senate

Given that Trump and the Republicans have very little chance of overturning the outcome using these tactics, the question remains: what is the goal?

Yes, all of this could be explained simply because Trump doesn’t like to lose. But such indulgences aside, the reason for this obstruction appears to be two upcoming United States Senate second-round elections scheduled for January 5.

Under Georgia law, a runoff between the top two candidates is required if neither wins 50% of the vote in state elections.

Republicans currently hold a 50-48 seat advantage in the Senate, which means that control of the House now comes down to who wins both Georgia elections.

The positions taken by Republican senators in recent days are revealing: They have stood firm behind Trump’s challenges and have gone to great lengths not to congratulate Biden on his victory. Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota put it bluntly:

“We need [Trump’s] voters […] we want you to help in Georgia. “

The Senate plays a crucial role in Biden’s presidency. If it remains in Republican hands, this could leave Biden with few avenues to implement his favorite policies on the economy, climate change or health care, and would deny Democrats the ability to expand the Supreme Court.

It is already clear that the Republican Party’s focus is shifting to Georgia. The two Republican Senate candidates this week called for the resignation of the secretary of state, a fellow Republican, repeating Trump’s unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud in Georgia.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, this was done to appease Trump.

“So you don’t tweet a negative word about them and risk divorcing your base before the consequent runoff,” the editor wrote.

Is democracy at stake?

It seems that all these efforts are aimed at one goal: to energize the Trumpian base for Georgia’s runoff elections by delegitimizing not only Biden, but the electoral process itself.

The long-term implications are far-reaching. America is already bitterly divided, as evidenced by the large voter turnout from both sides in the elections. This divide will only deepen the more Trump presses his claims and notes that he will not walk away quietly.

This continuing fracture of the United States would prevent Biden from achieving one of the main goals he set for himself in his victory speech: uniting Republicans and Democrats.

If half the country accepts his claims of stolen elections, the real danger is the erosion of democracy in the United States as we know it.

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Markus Wagner is associate professor of law at the Wollongong University

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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.