Politics –
Election Challenge
Could Be Bad For Trump

Let’s face facts: Donald Trump appears on track for one of the most colossal losses in presidential history. Here’s why any threat of an election challenge on November 8th could be bad for “The Donald.”

Politics
In what has been a month-long, face-saving setup for his expected loss, Donald Trump started screaming that the election was rigged even before a single vote had been cast. For a man who claims he ALWAYS wins, it’s all he has left. So, aside from standing on the sidelines to pout, what can/will Donald Trump do should Hillary Clinton win the presidency?

Once the Federal Election Commission declares a winner, the country will move forward to begin the peaceful transition of power. No one will be waiting for Donald Trump or anyone else to approve or disapprove of the results. Should Trump lose, he will have the option to either make a concession or not — however, there will be no “suspense.” The winner will be the winner, and that will be that.  Still, Trump will have some, albeit limited options.

Despite popular belief, Trump can’t just say he doesn’t like the outcome of the election and hold up the progressive transition of power. U.S. elections are decentralized and run by the states, which makes such claims in modern times nearly impossible. So, if Trump wants to present a legitimate election challenge, he would first need to request a recount. This would be tricky, particularly since states have rules which include requiring the vote to be closer than 0.5% of the total votes cast.  If current polls are any indication, Hillary Clinton is besting Donald Trump by 6 to 12% in most states, which would prevent any official recount from ever occurring.

In case Trump doesn’t want to accept the official rules, he could utilize the option of paying for a recount himself — but this move would be wildly expensive.  He’d first have to identify which states he believes were rigged, then pay for an individual state-by-state recount.  Even with his self-proclaimed billions, not every state would accept his money since there are percentage requirements in place to prevent a frivolous election challenge. He’d also need to successfully identify multiple states with gross voter error, then get himself to the magic number of 270 electoral votes to overturn the election.  At last count, Trump appears poised to barely reach half of the required electoral votes, which would make any election challenge from him a monumental task.

Another trick at Trump’s disposal could be an attempt to try to bring a legal claim by possibly alleging an abuse of power by an election official. However, if Trump’s lawyers were unable to assemble specific facts to support such a premise, any judge would dismiss the lawsuit.  Aside from the fact that personal lawsuits can be unbelievably costly and take years to complete,  a majority of both state and federal appeals court judges have Democratic affiliations.  This would make any legal contest from Trump that much more challenging.

Politics
Additionally, there is the double-edged sword to an election challenge.  For example, if Trump were to challenge a state where he lost, he would also be calling into question the results for those Republicans in the state who had won.  Or in other words, he’d be attempting to save himself at the expense of tearing everyone else down.

State election commissions and court systems would require Donald Trump to have a valid claim beyond just being a sore loser and wanting to waste time and resources.  However, Trump has (at least, so far) not presented any clear explanation as to why he believes the election is rigged.

“Mr. Trump never mentions what criteria would be necessary for him to make a decision about a challenge,” said Stephen Zack, an attorney who represented Vice President Al Gore in the case that was brought to the Supreme Court over the election recount in Florida in 2000.

“Basically it is left as, ‘I’ll see what it smells like and then I will surprise you,'” Zack said. “There are rule-of-law issues that pertain to elections that separate us from anywhere else in the world.”

Unless Donald Trump has rock-solid proof of widespread election fraud in multiple states, the threat of a potential election challenge from him is already being seen as laughable.

“The notion that the election is rigged is preposterous if not insulting,” said Eric Spencer, election director in Arizona.

“A lot of this is just posturing,” said Troy McCurry, a former Republican National Committee lawyer who was part of the party’s recount team in 2012. “At the end of the day, I don’t see how this happens.”

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OK WASSUP! covers politics.
Today’s article: Election challenge
could be bad for Donald Trump.