WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Donald Trump, still refusing to accept that he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, says he wants a presidential victory on Nov. 5 to be so overwhelming that the results are ‘too big to manipulate’.
“We want a landslide,” he recently told supporters in Georgia. “We can’t let anything happen.”
Regardless of the margins, Republicans and Democrats are preparing for a potentially protracted battle over the results as they come in. Dozens of lawsuits that could set the stage for challenges after votes are counted are already playing out in courts across the country. Most were filed by Republicans and their allies. In many cases, they involve problems with voting by mail, ballots from foreign voters and claims from people who are not U.S. citizens.
Trump, who faces federal criminal charges over his efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat, has repeatedly refused to state unequivocally that he will accept this year’s results.
Democrats, meanwhile, warn that election deniers installed in key voting-related positions across the country could refuse to certify legitimate results and lead to lawsuits.
“In 2020, the election deniers were improvisational. … Now that same election denial drive is much more organized, much more strategic and much better financed,” Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice, told reporters during a telephone briefing. “At the same time, the election system, we think, is much better equipped to handle something like this.”
Although partisan battles over voting rules have long been part of presidential campaigns, the number of election disputes has increased dramatically in recent years. With money pouring in for legal battles and the number of outside groups involved in election disputes growing, the disputes are unlikely to abate anytime soon.
“It’s not even just the parties – it’s outside organizations, and they’re raising money for how they can protect democracy, how they can preserve the integrity of the elections, whatever they may be,” said Derek Muller. an election law expert and professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School “They have wealthy donors supporting this lawsuit. So there doesn’t seem to be any de-escalation.”
With just over two weeks before Election Day, about 180 voting and election cases have been filed so far this year, according to Democratic attorney Marc Elias, who founded the election dispute tracking group Democracy Docket.
It comes four years after Trump and his allies flooded the courts with lawsuits alleging fraud. These cases were roundly rejected by judges nominated by presidents of both major political parties.
The number of election lawsuits has nearly tripled since 2000, when the Supreme Court effectively settled the election in a 5-4 vote in favor of Republican George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore, election law expert Rick Hasen, now affiliated with the University of California. , Los Angeles, School of Law, wrote in 2022.
The Supreme Court’s role in that race has increased interest in voting rights, increasing the number of lawsuits in 2020 due to changes in voting rules during the coronavirus pandemic.
Changes in campaign finance rules a decade ago have allowed donors to give parties huge sums of money specifically for legal battles. Electoral processes today are not always about winning in court, but also about sending a political message to encourage donors.
“It’s become part of the campaign to strut your stuff in court,” said Rebecca Green, a professor at William & Mary Law School and an expert on election law. “It has become common for campaigns to use litigation as a kind of headline, to get a message across.”
Trump’s lies about losing the 2020 election have been echoed by many in his own party.
But in 2020, while he started with a large group of sophisticated lawyers, most abandoned the effort as Trump continued to make baseless claims of voter fraud, even as his own administration insisted the election was secure and there was no widespread fraud.
The Republican National Committee launched what it described as an “unprecedented” election integrity program this spring, with plans to have 100,000 volunteers and advocates in key battleground states as part of a “commitment to ensure transparency and fairness in the 2024 elections.”
“President Trump’s election integrity efforts are focused on protecting every legal vote, mitigating threats to the voting process, and securing the election. As Democrats continue their election interference against President Trump and the American people, our operation is confronting their plans and preparing for November,” said Claire Zunk, RNC election integrity director. She said they were prepared to litigate.
It seems unlikely that some of the cases currently before the court will be resolved before November 5, but the claims could come back after votes are counted to challenge the results in court, says Jess Marsden, counsel at the group Protect Democracy and director of the group. program to guarantee free and fair elections.
The main court battles could be over the rules for certifying the vote. There is a new, faster adjudication process for certification disputes under updates to the Electoral Count Reform Act passed by Congress in 2022. As with redistricting cases, certification disputes can be brought before a three-judge court in the state they originate and appealed quickly. the Supreme Court.
“I suspect this could be used by losing candidates as a Hail Mary attempt, or in some cases, worse, as a way to use the courts in an attempt to change the outcome of the election,” said Wendy Weiser, vice president for democracy at the Brennan Center. “That said, it is also a safeguard in case there are some hassles regarding certification.”
Last week, a judge in Georgia declared seven new election rules recently adopted by the State Election Board to be “illegal, unconstitutional and void.” That includes one where the number of ballots had to be manually counted after the polls closed. Another required provincial officials to conduct a “reasonable investigation” before certifying results, but did not specify what that means.
Republicans have appealed the judge’s decision that invalidated the rules to the state’s highest court.
RNC Chairman Michael Whatley called that statement “the very worst of judicial activism.”
“By overturning the Georgia State Election Board’s common-sense rules adopted to protect Georgia’s elections, the judge sided with Democrats in their attacks on transparency, accountability and the integrity of our elections.” , Whatley said in a statement. “We will not let this stand.”
There is no legitimate way for a county or state to refuse to release election results, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try, Weiser told reporters Wednesday. Even if unsuccessful, these efforts could fuel conspiracy theories and “contribute to chaos and delays,” she said.
“If there are multiple attempts to deny certification at the same time and a huge wave of lawsuits happening at the same time when the margin is very small, that will make it more challenging for election officials,” Weiser said.
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Associated Press writers Kate Brumback in Atlanta and Christine Fernando in Chicago contributed to this report.
