As of this morning, Joe Biden holds a lead nationally over Donald Trump that most polls put at 51% – 43%. But you may recall that in 2016 Hillary Clinton won 2.87 million more popular votes than Donald Trump. But because Mr. Trump won more electoral votes, by winning a number of states by tiny margins, he won the presidency. If Joe Biden wins with a substantial majority of both popular votes and electoral votes, a peaceful and efficient transfer of power may occur. BUT, if the vote is close, litigation is likely to follow the election. With a solid conservative majority on the Supreme Court, one possibility is that President Trump could once again lose the popular vote but win a second term, either via the Electoral College or the SCOTUS. Who wins could come down to the votes that get counted (or don’t get counted) after November 3rd. These could include thousands of votes by members of the military, many of whom have expressed their disapproval of the President. In short, I would put the odds at 50-50 that we won’t go to bed on Tuesday night knowing who our next president is, and we may experience unprecedented litigation and aggitation in the days following Election Day. We may face an unprecedented constitutional crisis.
With these comments in mind, read this article (https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/assessing-constitutional-and-legal-challenges-2020-election) and listen to this webinar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBdx8HwTScQ&feature=youtu.be%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank%22%20%5Co%20%22https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBdx8HwTScQ&feature=youtu.be )
Then answer the following questions and discuss them with your class colleagues:
- What are the constitutional issues raised by the 2020 election that are discussed by the panelists?
- What are your views on these constitutional issues?
Sample Solution
