Bonus notes
More Detail on Timing:
How long could the election results and court challenges drag out? When will we know who the President is? Short answer: There are some supposed deadlines (see below), but the only truly firm Constitutional date is that a new President must be sworn in on January 20, 2021.
Long answer: Technically this year, December 8 is the statutory date by which all state recounts and court contests must be concluded. Practically, as we learned in Bush v. Gore in 2000, those deadlines merely transfer the chaos to the U.S. Supreme Court and start the clock there. A more robust deadline is December 14, which is when those “electoral college” votes are supposed to be cast. (Remember, technically, when you step into the voting box you aren’t voting for a Presidential candidate, you’re voting for an elector who is supposed to represent your vote on December 14.) However, because of originally allowing horses and buggies time to deliver those ballots from around the country, the dates those votes are supposed to be received and counted are later: in this case December 23 and January 6.
And any and all of those deadlines are likely to be fraught with intensity and surrounded by court battles and delays.
The only truly firm date is January 20, 2021. On that day, a President will be sworn in. Even if our normal election process falls apart and no candidate gets an Electoral College majority (for whatever reason), the Constitution provides that the newly-elected House of Representatives will choose the President and the new Senate will choose the Vice President.
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N.B. I grew up in Washington, D.C., worked on Capitol Hill and in the Executive Branch, and have a Master in Public Policy.
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Shaunti Feldhahn loves sharing eye-opening information that helps people thrive in life and relationships. She herself started out with a Harvard graduate degree and Wall Street credentials but no clue about life. After an unexpected shift into relationship research for average people like her, she now is a popular speaker and author of best-selling books about men, women and relationships. (Including For Women Only, For Men Only, and the groundbreaking The Good News About Marriage).
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