Quote Originally Posted by Geoff Parkstone View Post
What sort of a voting system accommodates claiming of victory before counting has even started in some places, and then allows a candidate to go to court to stop the counting when he thinks he is ahead
Not even the American system accommodates that. nor does it "allow" a candidate to go to court. Trump has habitually broken all conventions and norms, but as the media and even social media such as twitter and fakebook have made clear, what he says has no standing. In any democracy a politician can say what he or she wants to say, doesn't mean its true.

The legal challenge part is more complicated , obviously if there is proof of say fraudulent voting or unlawful processes etc. then in any system a legal challenge is possible. it has happened in the Uk, but at local level, when there was a case whereby there was widespread fraud involving postal votes, relatives and friends of a councillor or councillors had basically completed multiple ballot papers in other peoples names and sent them in.

In the US the supreme court is the final court of appeal in the US and has discretion over which cases it should hear, largely relating to challenges to cases heard in lower courts on points of federal law and the constitution.

So a lot of action will happen initially at state-level courts – the election has prompted a spate of new cases in the hotly contested battleground state of Pennsylvania, including two due to be heard later on Wednesday, generally about counting late postal votes and the like - Trump has tried to prevent the counting of postal votes.

However, unless the final voting is basically neck and neck as it was when Bush won from Al Gore, then no legal action will actually alter the result. Mind you thats not going to stop trump being an extremely sore loser if he does actually lose and saying some pretty outrageous things.

For me the stench here is those in the Republican party who have done nothing to stop this or repudiate trumps words and deeds, simply because they want power at all costs.