The Economist: Details of the Electoral Collapse Threatening America

Starting on the day of the US presidential election on the third of next November, the features of the unprecedented chaos in the country will become evident

What happens if President Donald Trump rejects the election result?

In

The Economist, the American writer, law professor, Lawrence Douglas, puts a table detailing what he called the unprecedented electoral chaos in the United States in 2020, until January 2021:

• The third of next November: Americans are watching with great interest the results to know the winner before turning off their TVs.

But this time, as tens of millions of ballot papers continue to be counted by mail, TV broadcasters are indicating that announcing the winner may take days or even weeks, and they insist that this is not a sign of a malfunction in the system but rather the result of elections during a pandemic.

• On the same day, a different message appears from the White House announcing Trump's progress in swing states.

This is not surprising given that the vast majority of Trump supporters chose to vote in person, while a greater percentage of supporters of candidate Joe Biden, who tend to live in urban areas most vulnerable to the spread of the Corona virus, voted by mail.

• At midnight, the president sends a tweet thanking the American people for their historic re-election.

• And when ballot numbers in the mail begin to slash his lead on Election Day, Trump announces that all of his most dangerous predictions come true: "Democratic agents of the counters have deliberately stolen the votes and corrupted the elections."

• Loud pro-Trump trumpets in the media amplified his claims.

All domestic and foreign actors - especially Russia - are bombarding social media with fake news.

• Trump is working tirelessly to ensure ballot counting is delayed by mail to create questions and confusion, and he deploys teams of lawyers to challenge the vote in any way possible.

• The charges are delayed in the three swing states (Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin) and litigation is faltering.

• These three states will not be able to complete the vote count before December 8th, the day legally scheduled for completion due to stalled litigation.

• Congress will not be obligated to accept the results of the three states.

Congress usually notifies states whose results do not accept mere notification, and then the state resolves its problem in due course.

Douglas: Trump will work tirelessly to ensure ballot counting is delayed by mail to create questions and confusion (Reuters)

• Trump's attorneys, with the help of the Justice Department, continue to flood states with lawsuits seeking to disqualify mailed ballots for technical legal reasons, such as arriving late or losing signatures.

• Matters are taking an even more alarming partisan turn, and lawmakers in the three swing states - all three of which are Republicans - are declaring Trump's victory in their states, citing a federal law from 1845 authorizing the legislature to appoint voters in circumstances in which the state "fails to choose."

• However, in each of the three states, there are Democratic governors who accuse Republican lawmakers of bad faith, and insist that their states have "made another choice", which is Biden's victory, and send their testimonies to Congress.

• On January 6, 2021, the new Congress, whose members took an oath three days ago, confronts a rare problem in America;

3 states offer conflicting electoral certificates.

• A collapse could be avoided if the Democrats take control of the Senate;

The joint session recognizes Biden's victory, but if Congress remains as divided between the two parties as now, they will each declare one of the two contenders the winner.

Days of intensity follow, and both sides appeal to the Supreme Court, but the court - in sharp contrast to its 2000 intervention in the Bush v. Al Gore case - declares that it is incapable of resolving, with experts insisting that the court has no role to play in resolving Electoral conflict once it reaches Congress, and with lawmakers in both parties declaring that they will not be bound by an unfavorable ruling.

• On January 20, Trump's term in office will end constitutionally, and America will have no president or elected vice president.

Under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, the position is transferred to the Speaker of Parliament;

That's why Nancy Pelosi is swearing in as Acting President.

Trump insists the Democrats are staging a coup and threatens to stage a separate inauguration.

• America finds itself in a complete caliphate crisis, and there is no clear and peaceful exit from it.

• During 230 years of constitutional rule, America has managed to avoid any catastrophic presidential elections, but it seems that in 2020, it will not be able to.

Biden's decisive victory would limit Trump's ability to engage in constitutional brinkmanship, and prominent Republican lawmakers - such as Mitch McConnell - could pressure the president to stop his fight.

But if the election turns out to be a late count and the margins among the contenders in swing states are so thin, America must prepare for chaos.