WASHINGTON (AP) — It will be 77 days between Election day and inaugurationperiod during which the president-elect can prepare his administration to take over from the President Joe Biden.

Long built on tradition and bipartisanship, presidential transition exploded into a point of political controversy four years ago after then-Pres Donald Trump made baseless claims dispute his loss and his administration delayed the start of the transition process for weeks.

This year, a new law is meant to start the transition sooner, regardless of who wins. But if neither major party candidate concedes after Election Day, the updated rules allow both sides to get additional government funding and logistical support to begin working toward a transition to power. That could lead to both vice president Kamala Harris and Trump could gather dueling, pending governments for weeks.

“Rules can only take you so far, and ultimately you have to have the players in the system working toward a common goal,” said Max Stier, president and CEO of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, which has worked with candidates and incumbents in transitions. . “Everyone should have the common goal of ensuring that the transmission of power is smooth and efficient. And that requires cooperation that the law cannot enforce on its own.”

Here’s how changes meant to solve problems four years ago may not solve future problems this time, and where the future transition lies in the meantime:

What happened in 2020?

trump card lied about widespread voter fraud that did not take placedelaying the start of the 2020 transition from one administration to another from Election Day on November 3 to November 23.

The head of the General Services Administration, appointed by Trump, Emily Murphyconsulted the transition law dating back to 1963 and determined it had no legal standing to determine a winner — and began funding and cooperating with a transition to a Biden administration — because Trump was still challenging the results in court.

The GSA essentially acts as the owner of the federal government, and it wasn’t until Trump’s efforts to undermine the results of a free and fair election. collapsed in key states that Murphy formally agreed ” establishing an elected president ” and the transition process begins. Trump also eventually posted on social media that his administration would cooperate.

What’s different this time?

Enacted in December 2022, the Presidential Transition Improvement Act now requires the transition process to begin five days after the election, even if multiple candidates have not accepted.

This avoids long delays and means that “an ‘affirmative confirmation’ by GSA is no longer a prerequisite for obtaining transition support services,” according to the agency’s guidance on the new rules.

But the new law effectively requires federal support and cooperation from both candidates to begin a transition. It says such support should continue until “significant legal challenges” that could change the election results are “substantially resolved” or when voters in each state meet in December to formally choose a winner of the Electoral College.

That means the government could provide enough support for both parties to put together an administration by mid-December — just about a month before Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.

Derek Muller, a University of Notre Dame law professor and expert on presidential transitions who testified in favor of the legislation, said it ensures that potentially two candidates will be supported for transitions, with one ultimately falling. He said it is preferable to have a situation where no transition support is released by either side — which can cause delays that lead to national security breakdowns.

“In the past, none of the candidates received funding. Now it’s both,” Muller said.

He pointed to the disputed 2000 election, when the GSA did not determine the winner until the Florida recount battle was settled on Dec. 13 — raising questions about national security gaps that may have contributed to the U.S.’s unpreparedness for the 9/11 attacks . next year.

“It may take until mid-December. It’s definitely a risk,” Muller said of potential dueling transition efforts after this year’s election. “But I think it’s a risk they want to take. And even mid-December is still a month away from inauguration, so at least you have some certainty.”

Even today, however, Trump continues to falsely claim that he won in 2020 and says he will accept the November results only if they are correctmaking it easier to imagine that he only does so if he wins – and possibly putting the new law to the test.

How do both sides prepare?

The extensive transition process begins around 4,000 government jobs filled with political appointees – people who are specially selected for their jobs by the president-elect’s team. This often starts with key Cabinet departments.

Harris’ team has already reached an agreement with the Biden administration to use Washington government office space and other resources and begin vetting potential key national security hires.

Trump’s team he did not sign any transition agreementmissing deadlines to agree with the GSA on logistical matters such as office space and technology support and with the White House on agency access, including documents, personnel and facilities.

Stier, of the Partnership for Public Service, said the Trump administration’s disregard for the transition process dates back to 2016, when then-President-elect fired his transition coordinatorformer governor of New Jersey. Chris Christieand then spent months of his early administration trying to recover from basic personnel problems.

Stier said the transition preparation agreements are just “the starter’s gun — it’s not really the race.” The full process, he said, “requires a deep understanding of our government and a willingness to appreciate the importance of the process.”

What will the transition look like?

Neither party will start completely from scratch. While Harris will build his own government, he may be able to take advantage of some leftovers from the Biden administration, where he was vice president. Trump will bring in a new team, but he built an entirely new administration in 2017 and can do it again.

Harris could also opt to keep Senate-confirmed Biden appointees as acting cabinet secretaries, just in case it’s hard to get her nominations through a post-election, GOP-controlled Congress. She has promised to appoint a Republican to her cabinet, with the former Wyoming representative an early favorite. Liz Cheney — once the third-ranking member of the GOP and the daughter of a Republican vice president — who campaigned with Harris.

Trump said he may turn to the former independent presidential candidate and anti-vaccination activist Robert Kennedy Jr. on health issues and having him born in South Africa Elon Musk a federal “cost-cutting” secretary.

In any case, John Kirby, Biden’s national security spokesman, said the current administration is ready for a proper transition, “regardless of how things play out in the election.”