ABC News: Election experts implore Congress to extend ‘arbitrary’ vote-tallying deadlines

While the presidential election will be held on Nov. 3, there are two other dates that campaign officials from both President Donald Trump‘s and former Vice President Biden’s teams have circled on their calendars that could be just as important to the fate of the 2020 race.

This year, under 19th century election law, Dec. 8 is known as the “safe harbor” deadline, the date by which states must submit the winner of the presidential election if they are to be insulated from legal disputes. Six days later, on Dec. 14, Electoral College representatives meet to formally select the next president.

Those little-known December deadlines are rarely meaningful. This year, however, with a pandemic bearing down on the country and a record-setting number of Americans expected to vote by mail for the first time, these dates could attract unprecedented attention and some are calling for them to be delayed to avoid a potential crisis. …

Despite a consensus among experts that extending the safe harbor deadlines would help states avoid a constitutional crisis, Aaron Scherb, the legislative director at the nonpartisan ethics group Common Cause, said any change could hold “unintended consequences.”

“We think, given the president’s previous remarks … it could be misconstrued by the president as Democrats trying to ‘rig’ the election,” he said.

Scherb argued Congress could wait until after the election and then consider extending the deadlines.