Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-09-07)

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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