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Donald Trump stepped up his efforts to undermine the 2020 election this week.
Republicans are reportedly considering asking state legislatures to ignore the will of the popular vote and appoint voters favorable to the president. Trump also declined to say whether he would agree to a peaceful transfer of power this week, comments many Republicans distanced themselves from. Trump said he needs to establish a new supreme court judge to resolve the election disputes.
The United States constitution gives state legislatures the authority to appoint the 538 electors to the electoral college who ultimately elect the president. States have long used the winner of the popular vote to determine who gets electoral votes in their states, but Republicans anonymously told the Atlantic that the campaign has discussed the possibility of using vote counting delays as a basis. to ask Republican-controlled legislatures to appoint their own constituents regardless of the final vote count.
“State legislatures will say, ‘Okay, we’ve been given this constitutional power. We don’t think our own state’s results are accurate, so here is our list of voters that we believe adequately reflects our state’s results, ‘”a Trump campaign legal adviser told the Atlantic.
A spokesman for the Trump campaign said the report in the Atlantic was not true.
“The history of the Atlantic is false and ridiculous. The types of contingency plans included in the story are impossible, ”the spokesperson said. “States have laws that determine how voters are selected. Especially if you look at states that might have vote-by-mail problems (for example, Pennsylvania, Michigan), no Democratic governor is going to sign a bill repealing those laws. “
Experts question the feasibility of such an effort.
“It is the scene of the greatest nightmare for the country. There is no reason to think that there is an adequate basis for doing this. It’s not entirely clear that there is the legal power to do so, ”said Richard Pildes, a law professor at New York University. “There is a delicate line in speaking and educating people about all kinds of potential scenarios that could come up and create unwarranted anxiety about what is likely to be a relatively well-functioning electoral process.”
Such a scenario is unlikely, Richard Hasen, a law professor and election expert at the University of California, Irvine. tweeted Thursday. She noted that she doesn’t see a way that legislators can legally change the way they elect voters after people start voting. Several battlefield states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, also have Democratic governors who could serve as a checkpoint for the legislature.
It’s also unclear how widespread or serious the Republican effort is. Joseph Kyzer, a spokesman for North Carolina speaker Tim Moore, said it was not something that was being discussed among lawmakers. Andrew Hitt, Chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party, he also told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Wednesday was not something to be discussed.
Due to an increase in voting by mail, election officials will likely continue to count votes after the polls close on November 3. There is nothing unusual about that kind of delay, but experts are increasingly concerned that Trump could use it to claim victory if the vote counts show him later on election night. There is a drive to prepare the public to understand that such waiting is normal to protect against allegations of fraud.
“Sowing unnecessarily doubt and confusion in the minds of voters can keep some voters from even participating and can fuel anxieties that put people on the razor’s edge,” said Pildes.
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