Opinion polls show the race between former President Trump and Vice President Harris is close in several battleground states and could take days to decide a winner, with lawmakers from both parties are bracing for the aftermath of election day chaos.
Democratic senators say they fear that if Harris is projected as an early winner, Trump and his allies will take advantage of the initial uncertainty about the outcome and make claims of election fraud. states.
Some lawmakers are already bracing for new battles on the Senate and House floors over the certification of Harris' victory.
Congress passed the Electoral Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022 to avoid a repeat of what happened on January 6, 2021, when a pro-Trump mob marched on the Capitol, but some Democrats believe history I'm worried that it will happen again.
“Any reasonable person would be concerned about the rhetoric coming out of certain states and of course the Trump campaign. It's setting the stage for losses to be blamed on the United States,” said Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.).
“I'm worried there's going to be chaos. They're going to try to delay things. If they're going to lose, the Trump campaign is going to try everything they can.”
Democrats have filed an ethics lawsuit in Georgia, accusing members of the state election board of holding illegal meetings and passing rules that exceeded their authority.
The Center for Media and Democracy, a progressive nonprofit watchdog group, said this month that more than 230 officials in eight states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — have questioned the policy's legitimacy. published a report claiming to have denied the If you spread claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Democratic senators have said they believe Trump is already making steps to challenge the election results.
“I think this is already part of President Trump's plan. It's also to make the false claims that he made in the last election… that the election was stolen from him, and frankly potential violence. “It's going to create a lot of damage,” warned Democratic Sen. Jack Reed. I. ).
Reid hopes that if Harris is declared the winner, Republican senators and representatives will again refuse to block the certification of the election, as many Republicans did on January 6, 2021. He said he was there.
He also said authorities may need to investigate allegations that political operators distributed ballots without a legitimate reason.
“If there is systematic undercounting of votes, that is a crime and we need to look at it,” Reid said.
Most Senate Republicans voted in 2020 to reject challenges to the electoral rolls in Arizona and Pennsylvania, but outspoken Trump critic and retiring Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said it was unclear whether Republican senators would immediately veto it. This time it's a baseless claim of fraud.
“I don't know,” he said. “That's a big question.”
More than 30 House members, including a handful of Republicans, have signed a bipartisan pledge to support the 2024 election results.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), an ally of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said that before Congress votes to certify the election results on January 6, 2025, , said it hoped the court would be able to resolve disputes over the election results. .
“I think there will be lawsuits filed in various states, just like in the past. It's not a decision that we have to make, and of course we have to abide by in order to be ready for the inauguration on January 20th. “There are some constitutional deadlines.” “Hopefully we'll win in a landslide, but it won't be that far off.”
President Trump's victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016 and President Biden's victory over Trump in 2020 were decided by thousands of votes in several states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Some Republican senators have warned that an influx of immigrants without permanent legal status into the country during President Biden's four-year term will threaten the integrity of the election, but it is clear that non-citizens will There are relatively few documented cases of people voting in the United States, but this is illegal.
“We want to make sure it's done the right way,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), one of President Trump's closest allies, said, referring to the bill that conservatives tried to attach to the spending. We had to make sure. That's why we wanted the SAVE Act.” Laws requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration.
“Unfortunately, many states issue driver's licenses and identification cards to many people who are not citizens of this country. I think that's the biggest thing that people are frustrated about… “It's the number of illegals who voted in elections,” he said. “The election may be decided.”
From 2021 to 2023, an average of 2 million people crossed the border illegally each year.
Asked if Republicans would vote to delay election certification if President Trump objects to the electoral rolls, as they did in 2020, Tuberville said, “We'll see. That's a big hypothetical.” said.
“I hope that something like what happened with COVID-19 doesn't happen,” the Alabama senator said, referring to controversial election law changes that made it easier to vote absentee in some states. “Because the coronavirus has opened a big can of worms.” As Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania expanded absentee voting in 2019, before the pandemic began.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), another Trump ally, warned earlier this month that immigrants in the country illegally could sway the election.
“We're entering an era of very thin electoral margins,” he said at a news conference promoting the SAVE Act. “If you let thousands of illegal aliens participate in elections in the wrong places, you can change the composition of Congress and influence presidential elections.”
Polls show Trump and Harris within the margin of error in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Arizona and Georgia will now require election workers to conduct poll counting at polling places, which officials say could delay reporting results.
During the presidential debate on September 10, President Trump claimed, without providing concrete evidence, that Democrats want new immigrants to vote in elections.
President Trump gestured to Harris and said, “A lot of illegal immigrants are coming into this country.'' “These people are trying to get people to vote. That's why we're allowing them into our country.”
He posted on Truth Social on September 18th, reasserting his unsubstantiated claims. “As we speak, Democrats are registering tens of thousands of illegal voters who will be voting in the 2024 presidential election and they should not be allowed to vote.” “
Another Trump supporter, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), said this week on social platform X that while immigrants without permanent legal status cannot legally vote in federal elections, “still There are times when you can vote, and current law allows you to do that.” It's too easy for them to do so. ”
He reposted an online report that the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles mistakenly registered 1,200 noncitizens as voters.
A Democratic senator who requested anonymity said there could be a long battle over the election results.
“I think it's really frightening,” the senator said of the possibility of Republicans claiming the 2024 election was stolen.
The senator said there are more Republicans in Congress now than there were on January 6, 2021, and they are likely to support efforts to overturn the election results that went their way.
“Look who’s been elected since then. [2020,]” the official said of President Trump's growing influence over Republican lawmakers in Washington.
