You might want to read up on the election of 1876 (Tilden/Hayes)

[unblock]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1876_United_States_presidential_election


This was a decade after the end of the civil war, so the circumstances were rather different. But the election was perceived as a mess in at least 3 states and critical electoral votes were disputed.

Eventually they gave the disputed votes, and the presidency, to Hayes, the Republican (who were the good guys back then) in exchange for ending reconstruction in the south, which led to jim crow and basically every form of oppression the southern bigots could think of other than actual slavery.


I think the elections in those states probably were a mess indeed, unlike 2020, where it's merely that one candidate can't accept that he lost.

That said, it's hardly impossible for the powers that be to come up with a terrible solution.

[Klaralven]

1. In 1876 the Democratic Party was largely a party of the South

If Tilden had won, reconstruction would have been ended anyway.

Hayes was a former Union officer, fairly distinguished, although not like his predecessor US Grant. Hayes successors, Garfield and Arthur were also former Union officers.

[unblock]

2. Right, the roles of the parties were reversed.

This was still Lincoln's Republican Party and the democrats were the party of the bigots. There were two major realignments, one in 1896 and the other in 1968, by which point the bigots had switched to the Republican party.

And now they are reverting to their ore-civil war behavior where no compromise seems possible.

Anyway, yes, Tilden winning would have been a disaster for blacks anyway, true.

Not clear if Hayes ever had a legitimate chance. There were allegations of violent voter intimidation against republicans, so maybe he would have won had the bigots not cheated, what else is new.


Anyway, point is, it's still barely possible that they might muck with the electoral votes and come to some sort of "compromise", there is precedent for it. That said, I don't really think the people accept that this election is in dispute the way they accepted the it was in 1876....