US elections 2020: D-day's here; legal armies are ready

Never before in modern US history has there been such uncertainty looming over basic rules of democracy on the eve of an election

Signature matches. Late-arriving absentee votes. Drop boxes. Secrecy envelopes. Democratic and Republican lawyers already have gone to court over these issues in the run-up to Tuesday's election. But the legal fights could take on new urgency, not to mention added vitriol, if a narrow margin in a battleground state is the difference between another four years for President Donald Trump or a Joe Biden administration.

Both sides say they're ready, with thousands of lawyers on standby to march into court to make sure ballots get counted, or excluded. Since the 2000 presidential election, which was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court, both parties have enlisted legal teams to prepare for the unlikely event that voting wouldn't settle the contest. But this year, there is a near presumption that legal fights will ensue and that only a definitive outcome is likely to forestall them.

The candidates and parties have enlisted prominent lawyers with ties to Democratic and Republican administrations. A Pennsylvania case at the Supreme Court pits Donald Verrilli, who was President Barack Obama's top Supreme Court lawyer, against John Gore, a onetime high-ranking Trump Justice Department official. It's impossible to know where, or even if, a problem affecting the ultimate result will arise.

Will the loser accept result?

Donald Trump has repeatedly refused to say whether he would agree to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses. Joe Biden has promised to accept the results no matter what, but that doesn't mean that Democrats won't end up in an extended court battle in certain states if things don't go their way. Never before in modern US history has there been such uncertainty looming over basic rules of democracy on the eve of an election.

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