There's the issue of perception and the issue of reality. On external and internal threats to our election ![]() There's lots of ways that things could go south. We don't have good procedures for figuring out what to do when that happens and that could lead to one or the other side feeling that the election was not conducted fairly. Or another scenario, as you can imagine, that there's some kind of external shock to our system: It could be some kind of terrorist attack or some kind of cyberattack that disrupts voting, and it could affect the outcome of an election, a state. So you can imagine the losers on the Democratic side being the ones who are not willing to give in. You can imagine another scenario in which Trump narrowly wins in a state like Florida, but there's a widespread belief among Democrats that he wins our election because the Florida legislatureīlocked implementation of a law that was passed by voters a few years ago that was meant to I think that that's just one of a number of ways in which we could have a problem. Lots of people think about the idea of Donald Trump not leaving office and having to be pulled out by the military. On possible scenarios where one side won't concede after the results in November An election meltdown is a real possibility - even if it's a small one." Hasen adds that tight races are at most risk of interference: "There's something called the election administrator's prayer: 'Lord, let this election not be close,' because when it gets close, you start looking at all of the problems that can occur," he says.īut 2020 may be shaping up to be a close election, and Hasen warns: "It's now 20 years afterīush v. ![]() These are all scenarios that law professor andĮlection Law Blog founder Richard Hasen considered while writing his new book,Įlection Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust and the Threat to American Democracy.Įlection Meltdown is that it's a little alarmist, but I'm going to own that and say, yes, I'm sounding the alarm - even if there's a small risk of this happening," Hasen says. What if a blackout were to happen in a major city in one of America's swing states on Election Day 2020? Or if an error occurred while tabulating electronic ballots? How would the electorate respond if one of the candidates refused to concede the election?
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