Republican Donald Trump, who still refuses to accept that he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, says he wants a presidential victory Nov 5 to be so overwhelming that the results are “too big to rig.”

“We want a landslide," he recently told supporters in Georgia. “We can’t let anything happen.”

No matter the margins, Republicans and Democrats are preparing for a potentially lengthy battle over the results once they come in. Dozens of lawsuits that could set the stage for challenges after the votes are counted are already playing out in courts across the country. Most have been filed by Republicans and their allies. Many of the cases involve challenges to mail-in balloting, ballots from overseas voters and claims of voting by people who are not U.S citizens.

Trump, who faces federal criminal charges over his efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat, has repeatedly declined to state unequivocally that he will accept this year's results.

Democrats, meanwhile, warn that election deniers installed in key voting-related positions nationwide may refuse to certify legitimate results and prompt litigation.

“In 2020, the election deniers were improvisational. ... Now that same election denialist impulse is far more organized, far more strategic and far better funded," Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice, told reporters during a telephone briefing. “At the same time, the election system is far better able, we believe, to handle something like this."

While partisan battles over voting rules have long been part of presidential campaigns, election litigation has soared in recent years. With money pouring in for legal fights and the number of outside groups involved in election litigation proliferating, the disputes are not likely slow down anytime soon.

“It’s not even just the parties........

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