Election officials, voting experts, and lawyers across the United States have spent months war-gaming how the 3 November midterms could descend into chaos, and the possibility that President Donald Trump might declare a national emergency ranks among their gravest concerns.
Those preparations were set out in detail on 14 October, when Reuters published a special report mapping nine ways federal power could disrupt the election before or after polls close. The news agency interviewed more than 50 election officials, voting experts, and election lawyers, many of them now rehearsing for a crisis that once seemed unthinkable.
