As the 2020 US election campaign draws to a close, voters are both more enthusiastic than in previous years and more worried about the outcome of the election and whether their candidate will not win.
Recent polls suggest Joe Biden is likely to win, but Trump's behavior and rhetoric show that he will not simply intend to step down if he fails. The issue of the possibility of a violent civil war in the United States if Trump loses the presidential election has become more serious than before.
To have better insight toward the developments in the US, we reached out to Marvin Zonis, Professor of international political economy, and leadership at the University of Chicago.
Referring to the Electoral College and its challenge to the US democracy and its possible role in determining the fate of Trump and Biden in the 2020 Presidential Election, Zonis said, " Of course the popular vote in the US presidential election does not determine the winner. That is determined by the votes of the electors of the Electoral College. The Electoral College was established by the founders of the US in order to protect the interests of the less populous states from the high population states — a decidedly anti-democratic aspect of US democracy. Thus Hillary Clinton won 3 million more votes than Trump in the 2016 election but lost the Electoral College and the presidency. Biden has been paying intense attention to this imbalance and I do not believe it will play a role in 2020 — that is he will win both the popular voted and the presidency."
He also didn't reject the possibility of protests in the aftermath of the election and noted, "I do not believe this will be significant. If anything some local demonstrations by Trump supporters angry at his defeat and easily handled by local police or the states’ National Guard."
Interview by Payman Yazdani
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