HOUSTON — Between the Wisconsin recount and the Michigan lawsuit, it’s clear this fight is far from over.
“In some ways, things are playing out exactly as they thought they would," said, Knake Jefferson, professor of law at University of Houston Law Center.
With vote counts so close, the Trump campaign has already announced it wants a recount in Wisconsin.
“The recount would allow for reexamination of the ballots, the counting process and perhaps present particular issues that can then be challenged in court," Jefferson said.
Jefferson said each state has its own rules for what can determine a recount, which could lead to legal challenges.
“In the process of that recount, there may be issues that are challenged in terms of how the recount is being handled," Jefferson said.
She said either party can submit a complaint challenging the results to that state’s District Court. The court will hear the case and decide whether the party wins the challenge.
If the party does not win, they can accelerate the complaint to the next highest court and so on, all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. But even then, the judges don’t have to hear the case.
But Jefferson said with many people now changing the way they vote, this sort of process may be something we see again.
“Exercise patience. We’re used to having elections called very late on Election Night, and that’s not going to be the case obviously for this election, and I think that, going forward, we are going to be in a new normal," Jefferson said. "And it’s one where the results of our elections may not come until later in the week and maybe ven longer."
She said if we start to see several recounts and legal challenges, this election may not even be decided going into December.