ELECTION SECURITYRecent Safeguards Should Quash Efforts to Overturn Election Results, Experts Say
Recent sweeping changes to how the nation handles election results should prevent a repeat of the near-constitutional crisis four years ago. It would take congressional majorities and most swing-state legislatures to upend the election.
Recent sweeping changes to how the nation handles election results should prevent a repeat of the near-constitutional crisis four years ago.
For months, former President Donald Trump has been laying the groundwork to challenge the results, claiming that noncitizens are voting in droves and swing-state election officials are cheating. Republicans could use those false allegations to refuse to certify election results or submit alternate slates of electors to the Electoral College.
But Trump’s actions four years ago led to state and federal action: Swing-state officials have reinforced that the certification process is mandatory, and Congress has passed a law clarifying certification rules and procedures to prevent a repeat of Jan. 6, 2021.
Although the Trump team likely has plans to challenge the election results if he loses, those plans will fail, said David Becker, founder and executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, a nonpartisan organization that advises local election officials nationwide.
“The guardrails are in place,” Becker told reporters in a conference call last week. “The counties will certify, the states will certify, the governors will ascertain, the electors will meet, and Congress will count the electoral votes as they were cast.”
Much of the anxiety from election officials and experts in the post-election period involves the certification of election results.
After voters cast their ballots and local election officials count them, the results are not yet official.
Local bipartisan panels — known as boards of canvassers — meet to ensure that the number of ballots cast and the number counted match. If they do, the board certifies the results. If there are discrepancies in the count, local election officials can be called in to clarify mismatched numbers.
The administrative process has long been accepted as mandatory and not subject to the whims of the local board members. If races are tight, automatic recounts are triggered in some states. Candidates can also go through the courts to contest results. But the certification process is not designed to be the venue to challenge results.
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There is no legitimate way for a county or a state to refuse to certify results when they exist. But that doesn’t mean the people won’t try.
– Wendy Weiser, Brennan Center for Justice
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However, Trump and his allies have argued that the process is discretionary and that local board members have the right to refuse to certify an election in which they suspect widespread voter fraud or bureaucratic errors.
