The presidential election was too close to call early on Wednesday morning and it could take weeks to get the official results, cutting into the time for ensuring a smooth transfer of power by Inauguration Day should Democratic nominee Joe Biden win. However, unlike in 2000, the last time there was a delay in results, transition laws have evolved that give candidates more of a head start in preparations.
While Biden can’t name nominees and landing teams can’t come into federal agencies during this waiting period, as opposed to 2000 the Biden team has “the luxury of the pre-election transition work,” said Ed Ingle, president of the consulting firm New Lantern partners who was the Cabinet coordination director for President George W. Bush’s transition in 2000, when the election results were delayed due to the Florida recount and ensuing Supreme Court case. “If Biden does ultimately win he’ll clearly have the benefit of the 2010” and the other recent transition laws, which is “good for the country.... [and] continuity,” Engle said.
The new laws followed the September 11 terrorist attacks, which made many members of the public and government officials view the transition differently because “you can’t have times of great volatility” if the country is vulnerable to outside security threats, Martha Joynt Kumar, director of the nonprofit White House Transition Project, told Government Executive, “What you need [from a security perspective] is to have certainty and continuity in government.”
Some of the transition law updates since 2000 include: the General Services Administration provides office space and secure computer systems for candidates’ teams after the summer nominating conventions; candidates can submit transition team members’ names to the FBI to have them vetted for security clearances; and two coordinating councils composed ..
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