With former President Donald Trump questioning a fair election this November, Connecticut’s Attorney General William Tong is preparing for anticipated legal challenges.
On Monday, Tong participated in a panel discussion at Quinnipiac University in Hamden with a former attorney general of the United Kingdom, who said Europeans are baffled that an American election could be decided in court.
Tong, who has been in office since 2019, said his worst day on the job was shortly after the 2020 election. His deputy attorney general had called and told him that 18 of his Republican colleagues had gone to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Republicans were seeking to overturn the presidential election by invalidating ballots from battleground states.
“It’s going to happen again. So, Democrats are preparing for every contingency, and Republicans are preparing for every contingency,” he said.
Tong is currently the vice president of the National Association of Attorneys General.
He has been in Washington, D.C. talking about how the association could stay together if there is a contested election this year.
“Now more than ever, it is so important that my Republican colleagues and I talk. Because I am not guessing or forecasting what is going to happen. We saw what is going to happen in 2020,” Tong said.
He is very concerned that legal challenges to election results in swing states could affect a peaceful transfer of power.
“We have our team in the attorney general's office ready to act and preserve the integrity of votes in Connecticut. That's our first job,” said Tong.
“But to the extent that we are called upon and have to assist others because it impacts Connecticut, of course, a national election does impact Connecticut,” he said.
“And if I feel we have to take action or as a community of states we have to defend against an attack on the overall election, as in 2020 at the Supreme Court, then I will act,” Tong added.
Sir Robert Buckland is a former Conservative Party attorney general of the United Kingdom and member of the British parliament
He is taken aback that U.S. courts would be involved in a democratic election, which is not the case in the U.K.
“Very rarely do you have the electoral court having to get involved,” he said. “We’ve had one case in my political lifetime where an MP was thrown out of his seat because of electoral misconduct.”
“We do have something called a recall petition, which means if MPs breach the standards rule and are substantially punished, then they can petition in their district, and the MP can be recalled,” Buckland said.
The U.K. has a national body that oversees elections, which the U.S. does not.
“We have one system that covers all the different counties and parts of the United Kingdom that’s agreed by the United Kingdom parliament," Buckland said. "I know here you have a federal system with different rules in different states.”
Buckland added that he is happier with the U.K. system.
“The good news certainly from my point of view, as a British politician, is that the courts and politics don’t often mix. And that’s a very good thing,” he said.
_
