One doable — however, once more, exceedingly unlikely — complication can be if a state legislature one way or the other managed to nominate a pro-T
One doable — however, once more, exceedingly unlikely — complication can be if a state legislature one way or the other managed to nominate a pro-Trump slate and defend it in opposition to authorized challenges, however the governor licensed a pro-Biden slate by means of the conventional course of, producing two competing units of electors.
In that case, it will be as much as Congress to resolve which slate to depend.
However “I don’t assume any of that is more likely to occur,” stated Paul Smith, vp of litigation and technique on the Marketing campaign Authorized Middle, a nonpartisan voting rights group. “Absent some actually clear justification, like some large dysfunction, it’s fairly onerous for a legislature to say, ‘We’ve simply determined we don’t like democracy anymore.’”
Congress will certify the outcomes.
On Jan. 6, Congress will depend and certify the electoral votes.
In any remotely regular 12 months, state certifications — by Dec. eight or, on the newest, Dec. 14 — can be the tip of disputes, and every part after that might be formalities. In all chance, that would be the case this 12 months, too.
However within the unlikely occasion that state legislatures and governors appointed competing slates, Congress must select.
One thing like this really occurred in 1960: The governor of Hawaii licensed a 141-vote victory for Richard M. Nixon, however a recount flipped the state to John F. Kennedy, and the outcomes weren’t last when the Electoral Faculty met. The stakes had been low — Hawaii’s electoral votes had no bearing on the end result of the election, which Kennedy received — however Congress did need to resolve the dispute. Nixon himself, presiding over the Senate because the sitting vp, known as for unanimous consent to depend the pro-Kennedy slate.
Within the theoretical 2020 model of this state of affairs, Mr. Greenbaum stated, federal regulation means that Congress ought to favor the governors’ slates.
However let’s say Congress caught to partisanship, which means the Democratic Home selected a governor’s pro-Biden slate and the Republican Senate selected a legislature’s pro-Trump slate. Even within the case of a congressional stalemate, federal regulation dictates that the slate chosen by the “government” of the state in query would prevail, in response to David Boies, who was Al Gore’s chief lawyer within the 2000 Florida recount.