What if Donald Trump loses US Election 2024? Will he challenge the results again? Analysing his options

Addressing a rally in Michigan in September, Republican nominee Donald Trump said that he will not accept the results if he does not win the November 5 Presidential elections against his rival, Democrat Kamala Harris.

“If I lose – I will tell you what, it’s possible. Because they cheat. That’s the only way we are gonna lose, because they cheat,” Trump said at the rally in September.

Earlier this week, Harris warned US voters against Trump’s bid to seize ‘unchecked power’ as the neck-and-neck race for the White House entered its last week. “This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance and out for unchecked power,” the US Vice President said in her concluding remarks at the Ellipse Park in Washington on Tuesday.

Will Trump Challenge the Results?

In the 2020 US Elections, Trump had infamously allegedvoter fraud at a January 6,2021, event while urging supporters at the Ellipise Park near the White House to fight after he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Hundreds of his supporters then stormed the US Capitol, indulging in deadly arson and rioting in what many call an attempted self-coup d’état two months after Trump’s defeat in the Presidential elections.

As November 5 Election Day looms, fears that Trump may challenge the results in case of his defeat are growing. The difference this time is that Trump, unlike 2020, is not the incumbent President. Also, a series of laws have been put in place in the US to prevent any repeat of 2020.

Trump campaign’s preparation to dispute election results after November 5 – in what is being seen as a neck-and-neck fight against Harris – appears extensive and organised, with growing support from Republican officials and a significant legal strategy, according to a report in the Guardian.

Vance didn’t certify US Election 2020

Trump’s running mate, Republican senator JD Vance, has has said that he would not have certified the 2020 election. Vance, in recent debates, even refrained from saying Trump lost four years ago.

“The effort to try to subvert the outcome is more thought-out, more strategic, more organized, more coordinated in 2020,” Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the voting rights program at the Brennan Center for Justice was quoted as saying by the Guardian.

Trump might as well contest a Harris victory in the courts or raise doubts about the validity of her victory amongst supporters that could have unforeseen consequences, according a report in Reuters.

Analysts have expected in delayed results on November 5. And if it appears Trump is losing, the Reuters report said, the delay will give him an opportunity to claim fraud and attempt to undermine confidence in election officials, while also possibly encouraging his supporters to protest.

There’s nothing unusual about the delay in results. But Trump plans to declare that the vote against him is rigged and that the slow count is evidence something is amiss, Rolling Stone, the American monthy magazine, reported in October.

The Elon Musk Push

Republicans have pre-emptively filed more than 100 lawsuits in the crucial swing states to set the ground for post-election challenges, including unsubstantiated claims that non-citizens will be voting in large numbers.

Billionaire Elon Musk, who has been openly supporting Trump, has helped amplify the ‘non-citizen’ voting claims on social media, receiving millions of views, according to a recent analysis by the Washington Post.

Both parties – Republic and Democrat – plan to dispatch thousands of trained volunteers to monitor vote counting and to report irregularities, if any.

New Measures in Place

Since 2016, a series of new safeguards have been put in place to prevent any repitition of 2020 undermining the outcome of results. A law passed in 2022 – the Electoral Count Reform Act – limits objections to the electoral vote and clarifies that the vice president cannot alter vote counts. The law also mandates that only state governors can certify electors. The law was enacted by Congress following the January 6 insurrection.

There are also recent court rulings that reinforce electoral integrity. The US administration has also put in place increased vigilance from state election officials and planned an aggressive action by law enforcement agencies.

Clearly, if election challenges reach Congress, Trump could face additional obstacles.