This presidential election, the first since the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, will require new systems and guardrails put in place by Congress to ensure America’s long tradition of peaceful transfers of presidential power. It’s a stress test.
As Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris race toward the finish line, Democratic advocates and elected officials say legal challenges are being filed, bad actors are spreading misinformation and It is bracing for a period of uncertainty after Election Day as voters await approval from Congress. result.
“One of the unusual features of this election is that much of the potential danger and many of the attacks on our electoral system have been concentrated in the aftermath of the election,” said Wendy, vice president for democracy at the nonpartisan Brennan Center.・Mr. Weiser said. For justice.
After the Jan. 6 attack, Congress set out to tighten the process and prevent a repeat of the unprecedented period in which President Trump, along with some Republican allies in Congress, refused to concede his loss to President Joe Biden. did. After months of pushing dozens of failed lawsuits, Trump sent his supporters to the Capitol, where they disrupted the electoral count in a bloody riot. He faces federal charges over a scheme that involved recruiting fake electors from states to falsely claim he had won.
A new Electoral Count Reform Act approved by Congress would resolve legal issues more quickly and strengthen the post-election process, reinforcing the vice president’s lack of ability to change the results of the January 6 election. However, the new law is by no means ironclad.
Much depends on the parties involved, from presidential winners and losers to elected leaders in Congress and voters across the country who have faith in a democratic system that has stood the test of time for more than 200 years.
Voters are worried about post-election conflict
American voters are heading into the election with deep anxiety about what will happen next, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt currently serves on the executive committee of the nonpartisan Keep Our Republic, where he conducts public discussions on the presidential election process in presidential battleground states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. We are committed to providing education.
“Our only concern is: Can the American people still have valid faith in our elections? And can we consistently and peacefully exercise power in all offices, including the Presidency?” “The question is whether it can be transferred,” Gebhard said at a press conference earlier this month.
“I think January 6, 2021, was a real wake-up call for all of us,” he said.
It’s not just the onslaught of legal challenges that is worrying Democratic groups, with dozens of lawsuits from both Republicans and Democrats already filed before Election Day. They argue that a sheer number of cases cast doubt on the election tally, as in 2020, when Mr. Trump’s legal team advanced far-reaching theories that turned out to be wildly inaccurate, leading to widespread debate at home and abroad. It is argued that there is a possibility of generating false information.
President Trump is running to retake the White House and is already gearing up to challenge an election he hopes is “too big to be rigged.” The Republican National Committee has made legal strategy the cornerstone of its election integrity program.
Mr. Trump has the support of Republicans on Capitol Hill, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has used similar language to say he would only accept the results if the election was free and fair.
“We will have a peaceful transition of power,” Johnson, who led one of Trump’s legal challenges in 2020, told CBS. “I believe President Trump will win, and this issue will be resolved.”
One specific attack from House Republicans has been to suggest that illegal voting by non-citizens exists, even though it is a crime, and that state and federal investigations show that such The act has proven to be extremely rare. To reinforce his concerns, Johnson pointed to past House elections, including the 2020 Iowa election, which he won by six votes.
Rep. Joseph Morrell of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said Mr. Johnson was “saying the quiet parts loud” and suggested Republicans could challenge the results. did.
That’s “concerning,” he said.
What happens between election and inauguration?
The Brennan Center has been running wargame-like scenarios about what will happen after the election as state election officials face a resurgence of conspiracy theories and voting misinformation.
The series of deadlines from Election Day on November 5th to Inauguration Day on January 20th were once routine steps, but now represent important milestones that may or may not be met. and is integrated into the process.
States have until Dec. 11 to certify their electors ahead of the Electoral College meeting set for Dec. 17 of this year.
The new parliament will convene on January 3 to elect a speaker and swear in members. Then, on January 6, Congress will hold a joint session to accept the electoral votes from each state, the usual ceremonial session presided over by the vice president.
To strengthen the process in the wake of the January 6 attacks, the Electoral Count Reform Act makes several changes aimed at strengthening the process and ensuring disputes are resolved by the time Congress convenes. It has been enacted. Legal challenges to the results would be resolved more quickly under an expedited timeline for judicial review, if necessary, up to the Supreme Court. The governor would have more power to certify the state’s tally if a county refuses to certify its results, as some did during the 2022 midterm elections.
On Jan. 6, the law now requires 20% of the House and Senate to object to force a vote of no on a state’s electors, rather than a single member standard from each chamber.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who was the lead author of the new law along with Republican Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), said she “did everything we could” to protect the process. said.
“You know that when there’s a problem with an election, people have a right to go to court and be heard,” Lofgren said. “The thing is, once it’s over, it’s over.”
Publisher:
girish kumar anshul
Publication date:
October 29, 2024
