Trump confirms he plans to take election results to the Supreme Court

Donald Trump has revealed  he expects a contested presidential election that winds up in the Supreme Court’s hands, one of the many reasons he believes Senate Republicans ought to ram through his nominee to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before 3 November.

“I think it's better if you go before the election, because I think this scam that the Democrats are pulling — it's a scam — the scam will be before the United States Supreme Court,” the president told reporters at the White House, referring to states’ programmes to ramp up mail-in voting amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“I think having a 4-4 situation is not a good situation, if you get that,” Mr Trump said of a Supreme Court that could be stalemated on such a legal challenge to the election results without its ninth justice.

Democrats have been warning for months that Mr Trump could try to “steal” the election by challenging results in key swing states based on bogus voter fraud claims related to mail-in ballots.

Republicans have already sought to curb mail-in voting through litigation at the state level, including in Pennsylvania.

That state’s supreme court ruled in favour of Democrats last week that election officials could count mail-in ballots that arrive as late as three days after Election Day as long they are post-marked on or before Election Day.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not officially announced a timeline for the confirmation process, but he has said there is plenty of time to hold a confirmation vote by the elections on 3 November.

“We're going to keep our word once again — we're going to vote on this nomination on this floor,” the Kentucky Republican, who is also up for re-election this year, said on Tuesday.

Mr Trump will announce his nominee on Saturday. It will be a woman, he has said.

The leading candidates are reportedly federal appeals court judges Amy Coney Barrett of the seventh circuit and Barbara Lagoa of the 11th circuit, although the official shortlist includes three other female judges.

The president has met with Ms Barrett at the White House twice this week.