US Election 2020: How Complicated Results Could Lead to Legal Challenge?

The world is now watching the final results of the US presidential election. But there are still many votes to be counted. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has declared himself the winner and accused his opponent of electoral fraud. But the millions of votes cast legally have not yet been counted.

Many in the opposition camp feared that this could happen. When Joe Biden claims he is on the verge of victory, Mr. Trump has filed a yet-to-be-filed lawsuit alleging vote-rigging and ballot-stealing, saying he would approach the Supreme Court.

The BBC's Anthony Zurker in North America says the nightmares that many feared are now coming true, leading to outrage among opponents and leading the country to a long and bitter legal battle.

During the campaign, Donald Trump has been warning for the past few weeks that if the election margin is too small, he will accuse Democrats of rigging the election in order to snatch his victory.

On Wednesday morning, he proved that his warning was not just word of mouth, he wanted to put it into action. With hundreds of thousands of valid ballot counts left, he declared himself the winner.

"We were ready to win this election. And to be honest, we really did win," he said. Let Trump know.

Without presenting any information, he said the vote was "fraudulent".

"It's a huge fraud for our nation. We want to use the law properly now. So we want to take the matter to the Supreme Court and we want to stop counting all the ballots."

His Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, also said the election would not end "until every vote is counted." He also insisted that "the Democrats are on the road to victory."

Electoral fraud in America

Both candidates can now demand a recount of votes, especially where the margin of results will be very small.

As more votes have been cast by post this year, there is a provision in US law to question the legitimacy of ballots sent by mail.

According to the campaign team of both the parties, they have already started preparations for a legal battle after the election. And both parties have formed large teams of lawyers to fight legal challenges over the vote count.

These legal challenges could eventually reach America's highest legal authority, the Supreme Court.

That happened in the 2000 election, when Republican candidates George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore and Florida recounted the vote on a Supreme Court order and the winner was declared Mr. Bush.

However, BBC correspondents in the United States say that numerous surveys of past national and state elections in the United States have shown that while occasional isolated frauds have occurred, electoral fraud is rare in the United States.

The Brennan Center for Justice published a 2016 study that found that the rate of electoral fraud in the United States is less than 0.0009%.

Ellen Weintraub, the head of the country's Central Election Commission, said ahead of the election: "The conspiracy theory that there is room for fraud in postal voting is completely baseless."

But analysts say the chances of a legal challenge are much higher if the outcome gap is too small in the battleground states that determine the outcome.

Edward B. Foley, a law professor at Ohio State University, told the New York Times: "We will not see a solution until the losing candidate concedes defeat. The dispute must be settled by a court decision."

If this fight for the presidency ends up in court, it could last a long time and create a lot of complications.

The legal challenge will be that way

Under the US Constitution, both candidates can challenge any ballot.

Since the state administration is responsible for voting and election administration in the United States, the state administration will have the primary responsibility for dealing with any complaints about the ballot. If a party has doubts about the outcome of the ballot, they can file a recount application with the election administration, or they can file a legal challenge with the state court.

State electors can also file complaints about the count or the validity of the ballot, just as this application can be made on behalf of the candidate.

There is a time limit for disposal of grievances at the state level, which also varies from state to state.

If the complaint is not resolved in the state court, there is a provision to take the case to the Supreme Court. And since the Supreme Court is the highest legal court in the United States, the Supreme Court's ruling, in this case, is final.

What happened in the Al Gore and Bush rivalry

We know that in the 2000 election, the electoral margin between George W. Bush and Al Gore was 21 votes to determine victory or defeat. Democrat Al Gore received 28 electoral votes and Republican Bush received 246 votes. Florida alone had 25 votes left. The gap between the votes of the two candidates was so small that the counting of votes continued week after week.

George Bush's brother, Jeb Bush, was governor of Florida at the time.

On November 26, he announced that the Florida electoral vote was in favor of George W. Bush.

A case was filed in the Supreme Court seeking a recount.

Source: BBC Bangla