Asked what steps they had taken to handle potential claims of illegitimacy should their candidate win the election while losing the popular vote, both camps sidestepped the question.
“Our job is to convince remaining undecideds and to turn out as many of our supporters as possible,” said Obama spokesperson Ben LaBolt. “It’s not to tweak our plans based on the daily poll of polls.”
And Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul said, “The election isn’t being held today.”
According to RealClearPolitics elections analyst Sean Trende, the possibility that either candidate will win the presidency without a popular-vote majority is “pretty slim.” He noted that there has been less recent polling of individual states compared with national surveys, making it likely that polls in individual states are lagging behind the broader national trends.
Still, both sides are preparing behind the scenes for an outcome that would be steeped in controversy and would almost certainly further intensify the nation’s partisan divide.
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