Elections in the United States: How long can Donald Trump continue to question the results?

Since the announcement on Saturday of Joe Biden’s victory in the American elections, President Donald Trump, candidate for re-election, he refused to acknowledge his defeat, supported by Republican lawmakers.

Since the November 3 election, Republicans have filed appeals in at least five key states, allegation of fraud or irregularities in the electoral process.

A recount has been announced in Georgia, where the vote is particularly tight, and it is not excluded that the same will be the case in Wisconsin, although there is virtually no likelihood of this changing the results. in both cases.

How long can the results challenge last? Can Biden’s victory be called into question?

For now, monitoring continues in a few key states, including Pennsylvania, and a manual count has just been announced in Georgia.

But each state has a deadline for the electoral authorities to certify the result and validate the vote count: Georgia has until November 20, Pennsylvania until 23, Arizona until 30.

The process

“I don’t think we have to wait for each state to officially certify its results,” said John Fortier, election specialist at the Bipartisan Policy Center, an organization that seeks to build bridges between Democrats and Republicans.

“I think at some point, probably in the next few days, with the tally moving forward and perhaps the rejection of some legal remedies, we will see that the differences are too great to wait for a reversal by legal action, “he added.” I think that is how the question is going to be resolved. “

December 14 is the deadlineIt is then that the grand voters of each state must meet at the Electoral College to formally elect the president, a vote in principle dictated by the majority of the popular vote in the respective demarcations.

In the 2000 election, in which Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore ran for the White House, Florida’s result has been disputed for more than 30 days, but the Supreme Court ended the recount so as not to miss the deadline, giving Bush the winner by a difference of just over 500 votes.

This is an “extremely unlikely” scenario, says Barry Burden, a specialist at the University of Wisconsin. “The mere fact that some people remember it is disturbing … American democracy was thought to have reached a certain degree of maturity. where this type of behavior would not occur. “

In such a scenario, which Burden says violates “the standards and procedures for appointing a president,” the majority Republican parliament of one or more states in which the Democratic victory has been contested. could nominate major voters for his party, instead of validating the Democratic list which reflects the results of the popular vote.

The dispute would then continue before Congress, who will meet on January 6 to count the votes of the electors and formally designate the winner of the election.

But for that to happen, several key states would have to present rival lists to question Joe Biden’s victory, which experts interviewed by AFP consider impossible.

“Donald Trump will probably never accept defeat”Burden said. “He continues to question the results of the 2016 election, even though he won them clearly and fairly, so it is likely that he will continue to question them for the rest of his life.”

Not for this reason, Biden will cease to be sworn in as president on January 20, 2021although that would sow doubt among Republican voters and could “delegitimize” the Democrat’s victory, he added. “Maybe casting doubt is the only goal of the Trump campaign team.”

Fortier said to himself “absolutely certain that there will be a peaceful transition”, even if it is not “the nicest” or “the most fluid”.

“It would be best if he admits defeat, but if the transition is not delayed it will not be the end of the world either,” he said.

Source: AFP

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