NORFOLK, Va. — After days of ballot counting, former Vice President Joe Biden is the president-elect, but President Donald Trump is refusing to concede.
Dr. Stephen Perry of Regent University said Trump's decision not to admit defeat comes as the president continues to make claims about voter fraud.
“In a lot of ways, he sees it as supporting the 70-million-people-plus who actually cast a vote for him,” Perry said. "Kind of makes me flash back to the Al Gore-George Bush presidential election, with the 'hanging chads,' and that went on for over a month."
But, Perry noted, the president’s refusal to concede is "irregular."
He said at this point, the president’s team is likely searching for any irregularities in the voting process.
The president has pointed to voter fraud, but those claims are unsubstantiated and there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
The president’s legal team has launched legal challenges in some states, but some of those cases have already been dismissed.
“I would assume his legal team is probably looking for what evidence is out there, and then what is the likely ramifications of whatever that impropriety was," Perry said.
As potential examples, Perry pointed to inaccuracies in voter rolls, and poll observers in Pennsylvania arguing they weren’t close enough to the ballot counting process.
“I just don’t know what you do about that," Perry said. "Clearly if you have some irregularities. How do you go back and fix it, other than to put a better system in place for next time?”
Election experts agree, voter fraud is rare.
Perry said the president isn’t conceding because his team is likely hoping to find something to take all the way to the supreme court.
“The only thing that would happen is, if the evidence was able to be presented in a matter that the courts look at and said, 'Clearly there was fraud in this election,' they would have to make a determination," Perry said.
"Does that mean that a certain number of ballots in a certain area were excluded, that they can still use the rest of the ballots, does that mean the state has to vote again? Or what does that mean? I don’t think we have a provision for that in our constitution.”
As of right now, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.