“What Happens if Trump Keeps Us ‘in Suspense’ on Election Night?”

Ned Foley in Politico:

The trouble would come if Trump really digs in. If he alone claims fraud while everyone else disagrees, then his solitary rants are more pathetic than dangerous. But if the Republican Party as a whole joins Trump in asserting that the results of the election were tainted (unlikely as it seems), that would be an entirely—and far more serious—matter. When the voting system goes seriously awry, as it has a couple of times, the system relies on the losing side to be able to accept defeat eventually for the sake of the rule of law. The American tradition, extending back to the Founding Fathers, has been to accept electoral outcomes perceived as unfair if they are recognized as legally authoritative. A genuinely intransigent candidate—one who refused to carry on that tradition after the legal system has run its course, and with the backing of a political party—would be an unprecedented, and worrisome, event in American history.

Now is an excellent time to get off your duff and order Ned’s great book on the history of contested elections in the U.S., Ballot Battles.

 

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