An election horror story for Halloween

With Halloween just around the corner, and the US election just a few days later, here's a horror story to keep you up at night. It' s a TED Talk by Van Jones (lawyer, politcal commentator and one-time White House official) about what could happen if a presidential candidate - any presidential candidate - should refuse to concede after an election.

It goes into some of the little-known legalities, loopholes and glitches that make up the US constitution, the fine print so to speak, insofar as it relates to presidential elections. It turns out that the concession speech that is traditionally given by the loser on election night is actually just that, a tradition, a voluntary acceptance of defeat that can allow the machinery of the transfer of power - the meeting of the electoral college, the ratification by Congress, the inauguration, all that - to continue in an orderly manner.

In the absence of a concession speech, though, there are a whole load of legal machinations a recalcitrant candidate - any recalcitrant candidate - could go through to hold onto power, including court cases alleging fraud or international interference, etc. Ultimately, if nothing is resolved, it would have to end up in front of the House of Representatives for resolution. This would make a mockery of the whole democratic election that preceded it, of course, but that's what the Constitution says. 

Even worse, a vote in the House of Representatives would not be based on the number of individual delegates or members (i.e. more or less based on the relative populations of states), as House votes normally are, but simply by state. Bizarre, but apparently true. So, even if the Democrats have a majority of individual  members in the House and in the Electoral College, the Republicans might hold a majority of states overall (you know all those little rural states in the middle with tiny populations?) This kind of "contingent election" hasn't happened since 1825, but it could happen this year. Scary, right?

And a certain Donald Trump has already done the ground work for all this, alleging that he can't possibly lose unless the election is rigged, that postal voting is a recipe for fraud, etc, etc. So, it could happen. And if it does happen, then all bets are off as to how it will develop; a civil war is not completely off the table.

So, now I have told you all that, you can choose whether or not to listen to Van Jones on Halloween night.