Anne E. Deysine, Université Paris Nanterre – Université Paris Lumières
If there’s not a clear winner of the November 3 election and the current president refuses to leave office, here are six scenarios that could play out.
Richard Nixon, celebrating his election on Nov. 7, 1968, campaigned against a backdrop of racial inequality, civic unrest and polarized politics.
AFP via Getty Images
There are similarities between the law-and-order language used by the 1968 and 2020 presidential candidates and the racial tension and political polarization both years. But much is different.
A poll worker places vote-by-mail ballots into a ballot box set up at the Miami-Dade Election Department headquarters on Oct. 14, 2020 in Doral, Fla.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images News via Getty
Lawsuits are being argued in courthouses across the country over the conduct of the election. That could lead to the public losing confidence in the election’s legitimacy.
Pope Francis, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, waves to the crowd after addressing Congress on September 24, 2015.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP
In the 2016 election, Donald Trump won 60% of the American Catholic vote. This year, it will be difficult for him to obtain a similar score, and that could have immense consequences.
The 9-member Chase Court in 1867, dominated by Northern Republicans.
Alexander Gardner/The U.S. Supreme Court
In the 1860’s, the Supreme Court was a ‘partisan creature’ and President Lincoln and the Republican Party remade it so that it reflected the party’s priorities.
President Trump during the Sept. 29, 2020 debate with Joe Biden.
Olivier Douliery/Pool via AP
The 2020 presidential election will be the first in nearly 40 years conducted without protections from a court order that forbid the GOP from using voter intimidation at the polls.
In June 2017, demonstrators (here in New York) demanded that light be shed on possible Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AFP
Sophie Marineau, Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain)
Russian interference deeply marked the 2016 American presidential election. Four years later, let’s analyze the form and impact of disinformation coming from Russia.
Conservative suit? Check. Rep tie? Check. Mitch McConnell looks every inch a senator.
Scott Applewhite/Getty
Clothing is a way for politicians to convey authenticity and to tell their story.
Asian American voters leave a Temple City, California, polling place in 2012, in the state’s first legislative district that is majority Asian American.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
There aren’t any clear ideological differences between the two, and Senate incumbents who aren’t embroiled in scandal rarely, if ever, lose. So what’s Kennedy’s calculation?
Will young, Black Americans turn out to vote in November?
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
By picking Kamala Harris, a Black running mate, Biden may have brought younger Black Americans, who now comprise a critical set of swing voters, over to his side.
Politics is a push-and-pull between the parties and the states.
Samuil_Levich/iStock/Getty Images
It’s a myth that Black voters represent monolithic support for Democrats. A recent survey shows that young Black Americans in swing states have big reservations about Joe Biden, Democrats and voting.
Delegates after Donald Trump accepted the GOP presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio on Thursday, July 21, 2016.
Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/via Getty
Political conventions used to pick presidential nominees in private. Now the public picks the nominee and then the party has a big party at the convention, writes a scholar of US elections.
Three years after his farewell address, Obama is embracing party politics again.
Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images
In his endorsement of Biden, Obama gave his consent for his former running mate to go beyond the policy platform they built. It also freed Obama to use his rhetorical powers in the upcoming election.
Closing the door on another presidential run.
Patrick Semansky/AP Photo
Joe Biden has taken control of the Democratic nomination with a string of big primary wins. The ongoing coronavirus epidemic is in part responsible, but the role of religion should not be overlooked.
Republican candidate Mitt Romney (L) and Democratic candidate, U.S. President Barack Obama (R) during the 2012 presidential debate in Denver on Oct. 3, moderated by Jim Lehrer.
Getty/Chip Somodevilla
Jim Lehrer moderated 12 presidential debates between 1988 and 2012. His lessons on how to run a debate should be studied by today’s moderators, writes a former presidential speechwriter.
Joe and Jill Biden address the press the evening of the Idaho, Missouri, Michigan, Washington, Mississippi and North Dakota primaries.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
With the race for the Democratic nomination narrowed to Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, six more states went to the polls on March 10. We asked three scholars to interpret the results.
Managing Director of the McCourtney Institute of Democracy, Associate Research Professor, Political Science, Co-host of Democracy Works Podcast, Penn State