--- title: What Happens if a Candidate Contests 2024 Election Results? description: From recount rules to post-election litigation, here's what would happen if a candidate contests the election results. canonical: https://time.com/7172058/trump-harris-2024-contest-election-results-how/ author: Chantelle Lee article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-11-04T21:02:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-10T23:04:40.971Z article:section: Politics og:title: What Happens if a Candidate Contests the Results of the 2024 Election? og:description: From recount rules to post-election litigation, here's what would happen if a candidate contests the election results. og:url: https://time.com/7172058/trump-harris-2024-contest-election-results-how/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfdedd4d45b3c3082/698a9be116d8843af9c45ae8/GettyImages-2181436037.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Residents Cast Ballots For US Presidential Election During Early Voting Period In California og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Happens if a Candidate Contests the Results of the 2024 Election? twitter:description: From recount rules to post-election litigation, here's what would happen if a candidate contests the election results. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfdedd4d45b3c3082/698a9be116d8843af9c45ae8/GettyImages-2181436037.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Happens if a Candidate Contests the Results of the 2024 Election? > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Nov 4, 2024 9:02 PM UTC  A voter submits their ballot at an official ballot drop box at a polling location in City Hall during early voting in San Francisco, California, US, on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. A voter submits their ballot at an official ballot drop box at a polling location in City Hall during early voting in San Francisco, California, US, on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg—Getty Images by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Nov 4, 2024 9:02 PM UTC Americans will have a President-elect within the coming days. While there are many checks and balances in place to ensure the safety of America’s election process, there are a few ways candidates could contest the results. One route candidates can take is through a recount. The rules of who can request a recount vary by state—in some, a recount is automatically prompted if the race is within a tight margin, while in others, candidates can request a recount, according to Matthew Weil, the executive director of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Democracy Program. In some states, the margin has to fall [within a specific percentage](https://time.com/6227469/candidates-contest-election-results-what-happens) in order for candidates to request a recount. Candidates could decide to file an official contest of the certified results, according to Richard Pildes, a professor at New York University School of Law and an expert on constitutional and election law. A campaign could also bring other legal action challenging an aspect of the election. “If a campaign has a legitimate, factual, and legal foundation for bringing a contest challenge, that’s the way disputes over the results ought to be handled,” Pildes says. “If a legal action is brought that doesn’t have the appropriate factual and legal foundation, then it’s an abuse of the system or abuse of the process. It also is potentially undermining confidence in the election for no legitimate reason.” [Former President Donald Trump](https://time.com/6972021/donald-trump-2024-election-interview/) has [already begun to sow doubt](https://time.com/7160689/donald-trump-pennsylvania-cheating/) on the integrity of the outcome if he loses, repeating spurious and unfounded allegations of cheating in key states. Both Trump and [Vice President Kamala Harris’](https://time.com/7081350/kamala-harris-presidential-platform-policies/) campaignshave teams of lawyers preparing for post-election litigation. **Read More:** [_Your Vote Is Safe_](https://time.com/7096453/election-2024-security/) The timeline to resolve election disputes is tighter for the presidential race than other seats.States have until Dec. 10 to resolve any disputes over the presidential race because members of the [Electoral College](https://time.com/7096801/electoral-college-how-it-actually-works/) meet and cast their ballots on Dec. 17\. Both Pildes and Weil say that it’s rare for any of these paths to change the results of a race. Many experts have emphasized that America’s election process—and your vote—is [safe](https://time.com/7096453/election-2024-security/). Weil says the country has made even more improvements to the system over the years, such as through audits. Weil says that recounts “very rarely move numbers by anything more than double digits” because even if the margin percentage seems small, it still typically represents thousands of votes. And the bar for litigation is high: “Not only do you have to prove the harm, you also have to somehow prove that the harm was great enough that it impacted enough ballots to change the outcome of the election,” Weil says. **Read More:** [_The Key Swing State Officials to Watch If the Presidential Election Is Contested_](https://time.com/7172033/election-official-swing-state-trump-harris/) False claims about the election process began to spread after the [2020 election](https://time.com/tag/2020-election/), when Trump[refused to concede](https://time.com/5910875/trump-concede-biden/) to President Joe Biden. Trump’s campaign and allies proceeded to [file dozens of unsuccessful lawsuits](https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-losing-election-lawsuits-36d113484ac0946fa5f0614deb7de15e) challenging the result. Experts worry that contesting results without sufficient evidence could sow distrust in the election process. On Jan. 6, 2021, rioters who insisted—without evidence—that Trump won the election [stormed and ransacked](https://time.com/5926883/trump-supporters-storm-capitol/) the U.S. Capitol to disrupt certification of Biden’s victory. “The risk to having a bunch of evidence-free challenges is a risk to the confidence in the voting process,” Weil says. “I think it’s very clear that when we have candidates who make the claim that are feeding into a narrative that’s out there, that that is going to lead to more distrust of the elections.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7172058/trump-harris-2024-contest-election-results-how/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7172058/trump-harris-2024-contest-election-results-how/"},"headline":"What Happens if a Candidate Contests the Results of the 2024 Election?","datePublished":"2024-11-04T21:02:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-10T23:04:40.971Z","description":"From recount rules to post-election litigation, here's what would happen if a candidate contests the election results.","url":"https://time.com/7172058/trump-harris-2024-contest-election-results-how/","keywords":["2024 Elections","Explainer","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfdedd4d45b3c3082/698a9be116d8843af9c45ae8/GettyImages-2181436037.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chantelle Lee","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfdedd4d45b3c3082/698a9be116d8843af9c45ae8/GettyImages-2181436037.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Residents Cast Ballots For US Presidential Election During Early Voting Period In California","caption":"Residents Cast Ballots For US Presidential Election During Early Voting Period In California","creditText":"David Paul Morris/Bloomberg—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2024-election/","name":"2024 Elections"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7172058/trump-harris-2024-contest-election-results-how/","name":"What Happens if a Candidate Contests the Results of the 2024 Election?"}}]}] ```