Quoted: Barry Burden, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Elections Research Center, said short of a natural disaster or technological failures, governors wouldn’t have good reasons to hesitate to certify an election.
“It’s worrisome,” Burden said of the candidates’ reluctance to promise to certify presidential elections. “Short of natural disaster or a calamity it’s hard to imagine any good reason for a governor not to simply go along and they should be proud to go along.”
“It’s a ceremonial role they get to have. It’s unique to that office, and governors all around the country are signing off on these certificates of ascertainment and sending them on to the National Archives for the electoral counts to happen in Congress. So there ought to be pomp and circumstance but no real discretion.”