(Adnkronos) – With the polls continuing to describe a down to the wire duel between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, the Supreme Court could be called upon to cast the final vote for the White House. Although it is impossible to foresee a new ‘Bush vs Gore’ situation at the moment – when in 2000 it was the Supreme Court after weeks of legal battles to sanction George Bush’s victory in Florida, handing the Republican the presidency – Politico outlines three possible scenarios for the Court’s involvement.
The first scenario is that the justices will be called upon to rule on a state election law. In North Carolina, one of seven key states that will likely decide the fate of the presidential election by a narrow margin, several lawsuits have been filed challenging voter registration and mail-in voting procedures.
The most significant lawsuit, in which Republicans are trying to remove 225,000 voters from the rolls, has just gone to trial in federal court. And in recent days, the Court has not accepted another case, from another swing state, Pennsylvania, also concerning registrations.
The second scenario includes the possibility that the Court will be seized of a case after the election is held. This could happen, Politico again hypothesizes, in the event that a state does not notify Congress by the statutory deadline of the certification of the ‘electors’ who will then have to meet in the Electoral College to formally vote for the president. A new law passed by Congress after the events of January 6 makes it mandatory to meet the deadline for communication to Congress.
In the event of non-compliance, the same law provides for a ‘fast track’ mechanism to bring disputes over certifications directly to the Supreme Court. For example, there could be a situation where the Georgia Election Commission, controlled by Trump officials, refuses to certify a possible Harris victory, justifying the position with allegations of fraud. This would then open the door to a legal challenge, based on the Electoral Count Act of the late 1800s and the new 2022 measure.
The third scenario, finally, could lead to an intervention by the Court at the end of the process, i.e. after the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2025, for the final certification of the winner. This is the most unlikely scenario, also because, Politico notes, it would be the most explosive.
Under federal law, one-fifth of senators and one-fifth of representatives may object to the certification of a particular state’s electoral votes, asserting that the votes “were not regularly given.”
Votes cast for someone who, under federal and state law, is not qualified to be president could fall into this category, Politico writes, recalling that Democrats have tried – in an attempt also rejected by the Supreme Court – to disqualify Trump from the election for his role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection, for which he was impeached and is now indicted in a federal trial.
If Trump wins, and Congress certifies his election, Democrats – still in the hypothetical and unlikely scenario outlined by the American website – could turn to the Supreme Court – which, it should be remembered, has a conservative majority thanks to the three justices appointed by Trump himself – arguing that their colleagues have failed to do their duty by confirming the election of someone who was not qualified to be elected.
