Even as a coronavirus outbreak has upended the White House, Democrats and Republicans have been gaming out another potential crisis that experts agree could plunge the country into unprecedented turmoil: a contested election in the weeks after Nov. 3.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has recently spoken in multiple meetings about preparing for a situation in which neither candidate attains the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency, according to multiple Democrats familiar with her remarks — a historic development that would throw the outcome to the new Congress in January.
She has also directed some of her members to be ready if GOP legislatures in states with narrow margins or unfinished counts seek to appoint their own electors, a situation Democrats hope to head off with an obscure law from the 19th century that allows Congress to intervene. Continue reading.