69
W
SCENARIO
4
CONSTITUTIONAL
CRISIS
Everything
goes
wrong.
Mail-in
ballots
arrive
late
or
are
discarded
for
technical
reasons.
Voters
face
long
lines
at
the
polls.
Counting
is
slow
as
both
campaigns
argue
in
court.
Partisan
rancor
heats
up.
Protesters
hit
the
streets,
some
turning
violent.
Internet
trolls
and
Russian
agents
spout
conspiracy
theories.
→
The
race
comes
down
to
a
single
state,
but
a
dispute
over
how
to
count
the
ballots
remains
unresolved
into
the
new
year.
With
neither
candidate
holding
a
majority
of
the
Electoral
College,
the
race
is
thrown
to
the
new
Congress
to
decide.
Under
a
rarely
used
constitutional
procedure,
the
House
now
must
vote
on
president,
the
Senate
on
vice
president.
→
But
there’s
a
hitch.
Under
the
Constitution,
each
state
delegation
in
the
House
gets
one
vote.
But
with
some
delegations
evenly
divided,
neither
Biden
nor
Trump
gets
the
26
votes
needed
to
win.
With
partisan
lines
hardened,
no
compromise
can
be
reached,
and
the
House
is
deadlocked.
→
Across
the
Capitol,
the
decision
is
handled
by
a
simple
majority
vote,
with
senators
choosing
(per
the
Constitution)
between
the
top
two
popular
vote-getters
for
vice
president:
Mike
Pence
and
Kamala
Harris.
→
On
Inauguration
Day
in
January,
President
Trump’s
term
expires,
as
the
Constitution
dictates.
But
with
no
president
chosen
by
Congress,
the
line
of
succession
kicks
in,
and
the
Senate’s
chosen
veep
becomes
president.
President
Pence
or
President
Harris
takes
the
oath
of
office.
The
weirdest
election
in
U.S.
history
is
officially
over,
but
at
a
great
cost
to
democracy.
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