The winner of the 2020 presidential election remains unknown, as several key battleground states have yet to finish counting ballots and President Trump has raised concerns about fraud, raising the prospect of legal battles and chaos as the seemingly never-ending campaign drags on.
Both Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden have more than 200 of the necessary 270 electoral votes to win the presidency, but Michigan and Wisconsin are still tabulating votes, and counting in Pennsylvania could potentially take days. North Carolina and Georgia also remain uncalled, though Trump leads in both states at press time.
“We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election,” Trump told supporters in the White House East Room. “This is a raging fraud on our nation. This is a fraud on the American public.” He indicated he would go to court to fight it.
Trump was angry that Democratic-led states where he was in the lead stopped counting votes on election night. He also protested networks calling Arizona for Biden before the full Election Day tally was counted.
Biden also expressed confidence that he would win the remaining contested states, though he did not criticize the process. “We feel good about where we are, we really do. I’m here to tell you tonight, we believe we’re on track to win this election,” he told supporters in Wilmington, Delaware. “We knew because of the unprecedented early vote, the mail-in vote, that it was going to take a while.”
Due to the pandemic, there has been a large increase in early and mail-in voting. States have very different rules on when those ballots can be counted. With some not allowing early processing, officials are managing an in-person election at the same time they begin tabulating a flood of already-cast votes.
Democrats voted heavily early, while Republicans predominantly voted on Election Day.
Trump had repeatedly cast doubt on the mail-in voting process, alleging it could lead to fraud, while also warning against the election dragging on indefinitely. He has pointed to delays in a New York Democratic primary caused in part by the need to count some 65,000 mail-in votes.
“I think you probably have to take the Carolyn Maloney race and run it over again,” Trump told reporters in August. “They are six weeks into it now, and they have no clue what’s going on, and I think I can say right here and now, you have to rerun that race because it’s a mess.”
Nationwide Postal Service delivery delays have also complicated the counting of mail-in ballots. Republicans, including the president’s own reelection campaign, have filed lawsuits trying to prevent state election officials from counting mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day.
“We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 a.m. and add them to the list, OK?” Trump said early Wednesday morning. “Very sad moment.”
Democrats have long worried that Trump will use the uncertainty to undermine the legitimacy of the election results if he ultimately loses. They pressed him in the months leading up to Election Day to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, while Trump maintained he planned to win a “fair” election and would evaluate his legal options at the time. Biden has also vowed to ensure that his supporters’ votes are counted.
“I’m confident all the irresponsible, outrageous attacks on voting, we’ll have an election in this country as we always have had, and he’ll leave,” Biden said in a September television interview, arguing Trump would have no choice but to depart the White House at the conclusion of his term if he lost the election.
Major media figures criticized Trump’s preemptive declaration of victory as undemocratic.
The presidency is won by the candidate who receives a majority in the Electoral College. Electors are set to meet in each state and vote on Dec. 14. In all but two states, every electoral vote goes to the statewide popular vote winner. Maine and Nebraska award two electoral votes to the statewide plurality winner, with the remainder of their votes awarded to the winner of each congressional district. Trump won an electoral vote when he carried Maine’s 2nd Congressional District in 2016.
A federal statute contains a “safe harbor” provision requiring states to have their electors ready six days prior to the Electoral College vote. This means state officials will be under pressure to get their ballot-counting done by Dec. 8.
The hotly contested 2000 race was resolved when the Supreme Court stepped in to decide a Florida recount dispute in the controversial Bush v. Gore case. Under the 5-4 ruling, George W. Bush won the state and, with it, a majority in the Electoral College. Democrats fear a similar decision in which conservative justices decide the election in favor of Trump. Three of the current justices were nominated by Trump, with Amy Coney Barrett sworn in shortly before the election. Trump has denied ever discussing how she would rule on any election-related case with her.
