Yarmuth: Trump’s ‘Rigged’ Election Claims Could Lead To Violence

But despite what many people may think, the person who wins the most votes on election day is not necessarily the person who wins the presidency.

When Donald Trump refused during Wednesday’s presidential debate to say he would accept the results of the November 8 election should he lose, his supporters had a heady retort to the predictable firestorm set off by his comments.

While the Clinton campaign has hammered Trump over the allegations of sexual harassment and assault, the Republican nominee has adamantly denied them, while complaining that the media are conspiring against him.

Trump’s comments did not worry his supporters. As noted above, most of the legal questions that could arise in states with contested results are state law issues that are beyond the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction.

Zelizer is a political historian at Princeton University and a fellow at the New America Foundation.

“Donald Trump is mentally ill”. They compare Trump to Al Gore, who in 2000 took back his concession after he learned that there were serious irregularities in the Florida vote.

“It’s horrifying”, Clinton pronounced at the debate.

Does the Supreme Court play any role?

And the impartial Associated Press bluntly tweeted that this tack is “threatening [a] pillar of American democracy”. About 61% of voters believed the country was on the wrong track as opposed to 30% who thought the nation was heading in the right direction.

Carter said there’s nothing particularly unsafe about Trump advising his supporters that he’ll protect his interest in a fair outcome.

“No one in America takes seriously what a campaign strategist or volunteer says about the peaceful transition of power”.

And then, as CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash recalled Thursday, Gore carried out his duties as the outgoing vice president and president of the Senate by formally certifying the federal election results – even as fellow Democrats pleaded with him to keep up the fight.

Trump also has new evidence to back up his previous claim that Ted Cruz’s father was part of a conspiracy to kill JFK.

Mr Donnelly said this is backed up by U.S. federal law: “They would have to challenge the voting results state-by-state, asking for recounts on close ties”. “We have a statewide voter registration system, but the machines are not statewide”.

It’s unclear how much more damage his statements at Wednesday night’s debate have done to Trump’s already sagging poll numbers.

One thing is missing in the voter fraud debate – convincing evidence that it is a widespread problem, as some people claim. Study after documented study has shown that in-person voter fraud occurs so rarely in American elections that it is statistically insignificant. An informal deal was struck to remove Republican troops from the south, in return for Rutherford Hayes becoming president.

“They know they’re supposed to stay outside”, Wise said of Trump’s out-of-town supporters.

A number of Republican National Committee members, meanwhile, have hyped the notion that the election will be riddled with fraud, repeating, for example, unsubstantiated claims that “illegals” will vote in droves.

Could Hillary stop a potential challenge?

“The only way to make the result completely indisputable, and to stamp out any challenge, is for Clinton to win big, by a landslide”, Professor Morgan continued.

“I didn’t like the outcome of the 2008 election“. As for Hillary Clinton, she performed competently in Wednesday night’s debate simply by remaining unruffled by Trump’s inchoate attacks, stating her positions, artfully dodging landmines on emails and Syria, baiting Trump and hauling him in like the orange roughy he is.

Trump’s campaign has long attracted unusual interest, and in some cases extraordinary alarm, in foreign countries.

“I would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people of the United States, that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election – if I win”.

“Trump will probably dispute the result well into 2017 if he loses”.

But if he or she means that they might not accept the final results as certified by each of the states, as voted upon by the Electoral College, and as confirmed by Congress, that would be unprecedented in American history. I’ve oversimplified the complex argumentation, but the point here is that challenging the outcome of a presidential election (much less numerous lesser ones) is not unprecedented, risky or necessarily a threat to the democratic core value of peaceful transfer of power.

Florida civil rights activist Becca Guerra said she is not anxious about voter intimidation inside polling places because of rules on electioneering and on poll watchers, but voters may have trouble outside in the parking lot.