Nancy Pelosi could emerge as acting president
Credit: Stefani Reynolds /Bloomberg
"You know, there is a theory that if you don’t have it by the end of the year, crazy Nancy Pelosi would become president. You know that, right?”
But, according to Christopher Galdieri, associated professor of politics at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, the Democrats could have another card to play.
"The House can pick anyone to be Speaker; it doesn’t have to be a member of the House," he told The Telegraph.
"So if this scenario was unfolding Pelosi could step aside long enough for the House to elect Speaker Biden, who’d then get to be acting president while the contingent election continued."
Why is the election contested?
US elections are not decided by the popular vote, but by the Electoral College, a system put in place by the Founding Fathers of the United States at the 1787 Constitutional Convention.
It was established at a time when the direct election of a country’s political chief executive was unheard of and the Electoral College — the gathering together of a temporary group of electors for the purposes of choosing a president — was, in reality, a compromise between those who wanted the power vested in Congress and those who wanted something more democratic.
Two of the last five elections have been won by a candidate who secured fewer votes than his opponent: George W Bush in 2000 and Donald Trump in 2016.
It means that the presidential election is, in reality, not one contest but 50 with the result hinging on a few thousand votes in "battleground states", which are likely to be the focus of a flurry of litigation this year.
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Have elections been contested before?
Yes, on four occasions.
In this November 24, 2000, file photo, Judge Robert Rosenberg uses a magnifying glass to examine a disputed election ballot
Credit: Alan Diaz/AP
There could have been a disputed election in 1960, amid allegations that John F Kennedy was the beneficiary of chicanery which even saw dead people vote. But Richard Nixon chose not to do so, accepting the result.
Will Trump concede?
Mr Trump has already claimed he had won the US election, despite the final results not yet being announced, and said he would go the Supreme Court to dispute the counting of votes.
“This is a fraud on the American public,” the president said from the White House on Wednesday.
"We will win this. As far as I’m concerned we already have."
So it is highly unlikely Mr Trump will be willing to follow Mr Gore’s example as he has railed against states’ decision to allow people to vote by mail rather than run the risk of contracting coronavirus by doing so in person.
"I don’t think it’s fair that we have to wait for a long period of time after the election," Mr Trump said before a rally in North Carolina, just two days before the election.
Democrats have pushed mail-in voting as a safe way to cast a ballot during the pandemic, while Mr Trump and Republicans counted on a big Election Day in-person turnout.
A few days before the election, Mr Trump told reporters: "We’re going in the night of — as soon as the election is over — we’re going in with our lawyers."
The legal battles have already started
“This is a fraud on the American public,” the president said when he called the election result from the White House on Wednesday before votes were counted. “This is an embarrassment to our country.”
Mr Trump said he will be taking the result to the Supreme Court and wants "all voting to stop”.
An army of lawyers has already been deployed by both parties to fight it out in the courts, with more than 300 cases filed in 44 states.
The key issue is which votes should be counted. The Republicans, who argue that mail-in voting has led to substantial fraud, have repeatedly tried to impose the strictest possible limits on which ballots should be allowed.
Even ahead of the election, Republicans were strong supporters of strict ID laws and resisted moves in Florida to allow convicted felons to vote once they had served their sentences.
In several cases, the Republicans have asked courts to stop postal votes being counted after election day in a number of battleground states.
The results have been mixed, with the Supreme Court backing a time limit in Wisconsin but not in North Carolina. For the time being, extra days have been allowed in Pennsylvania, but this could be revisited now polling day is over and thousands of votes could be thrown out.
In Nevada, another pivotal state, the Trump campaign wants absentee ballots in Las Vegas — where the Democrats are expected to rack up votes — thrown out because observers are being asked to stand 25 feet away from the count.
Will the Trump’s own Supreme Court judge change the outcome?
The appointment of Amy Coney Barrett gives conservatives a majority on the court, but it is not necessarily reliable.
In August Brett Kavanaugh sided with liberals in turning down a plea from Rhode Island Republicans to overturn the state’s decision waive ballot security measures because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Could postal ballots be seized before they are counted?
Bill Barr, the Attorney General, has echoed Mr Trump’s claims that mail-in voting will lead to rampant election fraud.
Writing in the Harvard Law Review, Edward Foley, professor of constitutional law at Ohio State University, suggests that Mr Barr could order that the ballots are seized on the grounds that counting them would violate the constitutional rights of those who voted in person.
Bill Barr, US Attorney General. could play a key part in the election
Credit: Jeff Roberson/AP
He could also seize the ballots because he believes they are fraudulent and thus breaking federal law.
Prof Foley believes that if Mr Barr was challenged in the courts, Mr Trump could even use the military to seize ballots deemed to be fraudulent.
Another scenario, he suggests, would see far-Right militias try to seize and burn ballots.
Mayhem would ensue.
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