[ad_1]
Counting watchers are a key component of both campaigns’ legal strategies, with preparations underway to challenge ballots, review signatures and witness requirements, and push to “cure” invalid ballots in states where it is allowed. . If a battlefield state turns into very fine competition, the fight could end in court.
The role of the ballot watchers, who include trained volunteers and attorneys, is to document every detail and dispute a ballot if there is a potential problem. While their presence is not new, election experts fear that additional oversight, combined with an influx of mail-in ballots, could lead to unnecessary delays that fuel doubt and chaos if it is a closed election that relies on mailing. . Vote to determine the result.
And with millions more people casting their votes by mail thanks to the covid-19 pandemic, along with many states waiting to start counting those votes until the polls close, the process could extend well beyond Election Day.
The prospect of a delayed result arises as Trump and the White House are suggesting that the outcome of the presidential race should be known on election night, rhetoric that is at odds with what election officials and experts are trying to prepare for the Public for: Total Votes on Election Night is never official and the high percentage of mail-in ballots means results will come more slowly, so the winner may not be known for days, if not weeks later.
“The longer it takes to count these ballots, the more uncertainty there is and those who spread misinformation, and even foreign adversaries, could use that uncertainty to create more division and reduce trust,” said David Becker, founder of the Center for Electoral Innovation. Partisan and Research.
Republican National Committee lead attorney Justin Riemer said the party is investing in a legal effort to make sure the process “runs smoothly” and the law is followed.
“We are not there to obstruct the process. If they are supposed to verify the signatures, they must verify the signatures. We understand that there is an urgency to count the ballots, but it must be done right,” Riemer told CNN. “We cannot stay on the sidelines if officials do not comply with the law; an unfortunate consequence of taking action is that it could slow down the process.”
The presidential campaign attorney top
Both Democrats and Republicans have spent millions preparing for the legal battles that are expected both before and after the polls close on November 3.
“We are monitoring those potential situations and we are well prepared to respond to them as needed,” said a Biden campaign official.
“It is fair to say that 2020 will be the largest election observation program the party and the presidential campaign have ever had,” Riemer said. “We are prepared with volunteers and attorneys at these central counting locations from the moment the ballots begin to process.”
The potential of the two parties contesting the results could begin shortly after the polls close. Democrats have been warning that election night results could be misleading, because a higher percentage of Republican voters plan to vote in person, while more Democratic voters say they will vote by mail, according to polls by CNN and others. . .
That means states could have Trump ahead of them when voters go to sleep on election night, only to see the results shift toward Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, as more mail ballots are tabulated.
It is a phenomenon that occurred during the 2018 midterm elections in several closed races, prompting Trump to cast doubt on the process. He tweeted that Florida “must go with the election night results” when the Senate race tightened due to mail-in votes, and suggested that Arizona should hold a new election after Democrat Kyrsten Sinema took the lead in the race for the Senate.
Biden said Monday he was concerned Trump would try to do the same in November. When asked if he was confident that all votes would be counted, the former vice president told reporters: “I am confident that Trump will try to stop that from happening, but I am sure the American public will insist on it.”
The time it takes to declare a winner in the presidential election will largely depend on how close the election is. In modern presidential politics, a winner is often called, though not always, on election night. In 2004, Democratic candidate John Kerry did not back down until the next day, waiting for the results in Ohio to come in full. And in 2000, the presidential race dragged on for more than a month after Election Day, thanks to a lengthy recount from Florida and the accompanying court battle.
RNC spokesman Michael Ahrens pointed to Florida’s 2000 count as an example of why there shouldn’t be a long delay after the election. “I don’t think the 36 days it took in 2000 served anyone,” Ahrens said.
‘You could really mess up the job’
Several key states on the battlefield – Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania – don’t start counting mail-in ballots until Election Day by law, only raising the stakes for a possible delay until it is known who won.
Michigan is debating changing its laws on counting mail-in ballots. The state Senate approved a bill Tuesday that gives poll workers an additional day to process absentee ballots; legislation is still pending in the House.
Once the count begins, several states, such as Wisconsin, allow contestants to be very close to the election official tabulating the votes, allowing them to question whether a ballot is valid. Wisconsin elections official Reid Magney said the state has historically had attorneys from both sides at central counting locations, such as Milwaukee and Green Bay, which are also open to the public.
“Campaigns can make people look over their shoulders,” Magney said.
But that can slow things down.
“If you have a ballot that would normally take 20 to 30 seconds, but it takes 1 to 2 minutes because someone is challenging each ballot, that drags it down exponentially and it could really ruin the job,” Becker said.
Because more mail ballots are likely to come from Democrats, Republican attorneys are likely to be in a position to challenge the legitimacy of mail ballots. Such challenges could be due to a signature discrepancy or missing information, such as a witness signature, which is required in some states.
Democrats, in turn, are preparing to counter those Republican challenges. They are also preparing efforts to quickly “cure” ballots deemed invalid, which can be done after Election Day in 13 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Election officials at central counting locations are generally well-trained, Becker said, adding that campaigns will need “some reasonable basis” to contest a ballot. “You are not allowed to contest all the ballots,” he said.
Magney said campaign officials and the general public can watch the process, but they can’t go too far. “If someone is creating a riot,” he said, “they could be kicked out.”
