As the Guardian writes, although Trump refuses to acknowledge Biden’s victory, experts believe that there is no legal way for him to sit in the presidential chair, which means that it is time for Republicans to accept the fact that there will be a new owner in the White House.
The British leftist publication, which is a priori sympathetic to American democrats, quotes some experts in American electoral law who agree that Trump will not be able to challenge the results of the elections.
Still, Biden’s supporters have fears in the media that the President and other Republicans will make every effort to stay in power.
“There will be a smooth transition to the second Trump administration”, – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo promised the other day.
Trump’s appointee, Attorney General William Barr, has ordered the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, within the scope of its powers, to launch an investigation into election irregularities. The head of the Electoral Crimes Division of the Ministry of Justice, who disagrees with this decision, even resigned from his post and moved to another position.
According to the newspaper, when the Electoral College meets on 14 December to vote for the president, they will need to be guided by the results of the popular will in their states. Once again, the liberal media predict that Biden will receive far more than the 270 votes he needs to become president. In the current situation, his victory does not depend on a single state and his advantage in Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Arizona, Trump is unlikely to be broken.
However, there is a long known legal theory, put forward by Republicans before the elections, that in states where Republicans have a majority in local legislatures, such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, the results of residents’ votes can be ignored and the electorate “will be given the command” to vote for Trump. The federal law allows such tricks to be done if, by 14 December, the day of the meeting of the electoral college, voters have still “failed to make a choice”. However, according to British journalists, there is no reason for such decisions to be made, as “the states have clearly voted for Biden”. However, the Trump team has every reason to disagree with them.
Here is what Richard Hassen, Professor of Law at the University of California at Irvine, wrote on this occasion, one of the observers to the last election.
“If the country continues to follow the rule of law, I don’t see any plausible constitutional path for Trump to remain president, except for new evidence of some massive electoral failure in several states”, – Hasen wrote in an e-mail. – “Otherwise, it would be an uncovered, anti-democratic seizure of power, using state legislatures to bypass voters’ choices. I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Such an attempt to supplant voting results with a willpower decision, if taken in several states, would create a serious split in already red-hot American society and would cause irreparable damage to democracy. This is what The Guardian journalists believe. Apparently, in their opinion, frank vote stuffing and other electoral cheating by the forces behind Biden does not harm democracy.
“Are there any signs that Republicans in these important states are going to pull off such an adventure”, – the experts ask.
Each state has its own deadlines for confirming the results of elections, which are then used to distribute votes to the electoral college. In at least two states, Pennsylvania and Michigan, the Trump campaign seeks to block the certification of voting results. Time is of the essence on the Republican side, as the approval of the voting results must take place no later than 8 December, otherwise the aforementioned theory will come into force and the decision will be taken no longer in the polling stations.
Although in the future the process will not be easy for anyone. Democrat governors in these states are in power and will oppose the decision of their “republican” legislative assemblies. As a result of this legal conflict, a further decision will be made by the American Congress, in whose lower house Democrats have a majority, and Republicans in the Senate.
The electoral dispute between the US House of Representatives and the Senate is the worst-case scenario, and in this case the US Supreme Court will have to intervene, most of whose judges are Republicans, Trump supporters.
“No matter how long the dispute lasts, the Constitution sets one final term. Even if the vote count continues, the terms of office of the president and vice president end at noon on 20 January. If there is no final outcome in the presidential race before then, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, will become Acting President of the USA”, – concludes The Guardian.