What If Trump Declares Victory Before Votes Are Counted?

Jon Ward: “Since the emergence of the coronavirus, Trump has made numerous wild claims — without any evidence and in contradiction to known facts — that mail-in voting will lead to widespread fraud and cheating. If most Republicans vote in person and most Democrats vote by mail, that could create a scenario well suited to Trump’s tendency to make unfounded accusations of wrongdoing.”

Said law professor Rick Hasen: “As Trump drives more and more of his supporters to vote in person and away from vote-by-mail, it’s quite likely that we’ll see Trump getting many more votes on election night, the votes that are counted on Election Day.”

He added: “Then, four or five days later, if Biden becomes the winner as the absentee ballots are counted in Philadelphia or Detroit, that’s a recipe, if it’s close, for a really ugly election scenario.”