Ohio State University election law experts and students are gathering at WOSU's headquarters in Columbus to watch election results and are tracking litigation and irregularities at the polls on Tuesday.
The dozens of Moritz College of Law students and professors are checking for potential lawsuits over things like polling place hours and technical snafus. They are also watching out for irregularities like reported voter intimidation at the ballot drop boxes that were set on fire by a man last week in Oregon and Washington.
The team is focusing on the seven battleground states, as well as about 40 congressional races, including three in Ohio and plan to work until midnight.
Anthony Gaughan is a visiting professor at OSU from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Gaughan said so far the election has been smooth "from coast-to-coast" — besides long lines.
"But that's a good complaint to have because the long lines reflect the fact that millions and millions of Americans will be participating in the election here in Ohio and around the country," Gaughan said.
Gaughan said by 4 p.m. it seemed like no major threats have been reported to election officials as of yet. And there have been no reports of filed lawsuits yet.
Gaughan's biggest takeaway by the afternoon is that turnout is high, and it could be the highest in U.S. history by the end of the night.
"I think this is a very good sign that turnout is so high, because it reflects the fact that Americans still have confidence that democratic elections matter, and that our democracy still is capable of reflecting the will of the electorate," Gaughan said.
As election results here in Ohio and other states come later in the evening, Gaughan said he and his students are going to be keeping an eye on certain states and even certain counties for election results.
Gaughan also didn't rule out recounts and lawsuits over close election results.
"If we this year see again an extremely close vote in the battleground states, then I would expect there will be recounts. There will be a delay in ultimately determining which candidates have won in the key battleground states," he said.
However, Gaughan said if the election results aren't particularly close, voters could get a good idea of what the election results are by late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.
"What's most likely is if we have a decisive result tonight and into the day tomorrow, there probably won't be a whole lot of litigation. However, if we end up with another razor thin margin like we did in 2020, then we're very likely to see litigation surrounding recounts," Gaughan said.
