//Furman Professor of Politics and International Affairs Weighs in on Post-Election Controversy

Furman Professor of Politics and International Affairs Weighs in on Post-Election Controversy

President Trump will have to convince the Supreme Court to take a case on appeal. So far, his legal team is having a tough time convincing ANY court that it has enough evidence of illegal or improper behavior to overturn the election results. I suspect all of the court challenges will be handled by lower courts and that the Supreme Court will be spared the task of deciding the election.

Unfortunately, the President has broadened his attacks on the election to much more than specific problems in specific states. He is claiming that he “won” the election no matter what the official vote count. By undermining the legitimacy of the electoral process in general, he erodes trust in the country’s ability to choose its leaders through the ballot box. If the ballot box is eliminated as a trustworthy method of settling political disputes, political leaders will be forced to use more traditional–and coercive–modes of political conflict. At that point we are no longer a nation of laws–and the Great American Experiment in democracy will have ended. 

Brent F. Nelsen
Professor of Politics and International Affairs
Furman University