WASHINGTON (AP) — This presidential election, the first since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, will be a stress test of the new systems and safeguards that Congress has put in place to ensure America’s long tradition of peaceful transfer of human rights. presidential power.

As Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris head to the finish line, democracy advocates and elected officials are bracing for a volatile period in the aftermath of Election Day, as legal challenges are filed, as bad actors are spreading disinformation and voters are waiting for Congress to confirm their decision. the results.

“One of the unusual features of this election is that much of the potential danger and many of the attacks on the election system are focused on the post-election period,” said Wendy Weiser, vice president for the election. democracy at the nonpartisan Brennan Center. for Justice.

After the January 6 attack, Congress moved to shore up the process and prevent a repeat of that unprecedented period in which Trump, joined by some Republican Party allies in Congress, refused to concede defeat to to President Joe Biden. Trump spent months pushing through dozens of failed court cases before sending his supporters to the U.S. Capitol, where they disrupted the electoral count with a bloody riot. He faces a federal indictment over the scheme, which included lists of fake voters from states falsely claiming he won.

Although the new electoral count reform law approved by Congress has clarified post-election processes – to more quickly resolve legal challenges and reinforce that the vice president does not have the ability to change the outcome of elections. elections of January 6 – the new law is in no way ironclad.

Much depends on the people involved, from the winners and losers of the presidential election to the elected leaders of Congress and voters across America who place their trust in the democratic system that has existed for more than 200 years. Over the weekend, Trump said he and House Speaker Mike Johnson had a “little secret” to winning the election.

Voters worry about post-election conflicts

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that American voters are approaching the election with deep unease about what might come next.

Dick Gephardt, the former House leader, now serves on the board of the nonpartisan organization Keep our Republic, which works to provide civic education about the process in the presidential battleground state of Michigan , Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

“We are concerned about one thing and one thing only: Can Americans still have valid confidence in elections and can we consistently have a peaceful transfer of power in all offices, including the presidency? Gephardt said during a briefing earlier this month.

“January 6, 2021 was really a wake-up call, I think, for all of us,” he said.

It’s not just the onslaught of legal challenges that worries Democratic groups, since dozens of complaints have already been filed by Republicans and Democrats even before Election Day. They say the large number of cases is likely to sow doubt about the election count and give rise to misinformation, both domestically and abroad, as happened in 2020 when the legal team of Trump has revealed a wide variety of theories that have proven to be wildly inaccurate.

As Trump races to retake the White House, he’s already setting the stage for an election he says is “too important to rig.” The Republican National Committee has made legal strategy the cornerstone of its election integrity agenda.

Trump is supported by Republicans on Capitol Hill, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has adopted similar language, saying he would only accept the results if the election was free and fair.

“We’re going to have a peaceful transition of power,” Johnson, who led one of Trump’s 2020 legal challenges, said on CBS. “I believe President Trump will win and this will be taken care of.”

A specific line of attack from House Republicans has been to suggest that noncitizens would vote illegally, even though it constitutes a crime, and state and federal reviews have found this to be extremely rare. Johnson pointed to past House elections, including the 2020 Iowa election that was won by six votes, to reinforce his concerns.

Rep. Joseph Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said Johnson is “saying the silent part out loud,” signaling how Republicans could challenge the outcome.

It “bothers me,” he said.

What happens between the election and the inauguration?

At the Brennan Center, they have been running war game-style scenarios about what could happen after the election, at a time when state election officials are facing a resurgence of conspiracy theories and misinformation about voting.

Built into the process are a series of deadlines between Election Day, Nov. 5, and Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, once routine steps that now constitute important milestones that can be met — or missed.

States are required to certify their electors by Dec. 11 ahead of a meeting of the Electoral College, which this year is set for Dec. 17.

The new Congress will meet on January 3 to elect a House speaker and swear in lawmakers. Then, on January 6, Congress holds a joint session to accept the states’ electoral counts – a typically ceremonial session presided over by the vice president.

To strengthen the process in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack, the Electoral Count Reform Act instituted several changes intended to shore up the process and ensure that disputes are resolved before Congress meets. Legal challenges to results should be resolved more quickly, under an expedited timeline for judicial review, all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary. If a county refuses to certify its results, as some did in the 2022 midterm elections, the governor has more power to certify the state’s tally.

As of Jan. 6, the law now requires 20 percent of members of the House and Senate to challenge a state’s electors to force a vote on rejection, rather than a threshold of just one member from each chamber.

“You know people have a right, if they have a problem with the election, to go to court and be heard,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California. “The fact is, once it’s over, it’s over.”