# Election Contest An **election contest** is the adversarial proceeding by which a *certified* election result is challenged and, in principle, undone. It is the last instrument in the post-election sequence and the only one that is a lawsuit: a [[Recount]] re-tallies the ballots, a post-election audit checks the count against the paper, [[Election Certification]] makes the number final — and a contest alleges that the final number is wrong because of fraud, ineligibility, illegal votes counted, legal votes rejected, or official misconduct. Two features distinguish it from every other post-election remedy. First, it is **pleaded and proved**, not triggered by arithmetic: somebody with standing must file, within a deadline usually measured in days, and carry a burden. Second, its forum is **a function of the office contested rather than of the state** — the same state may send a governorship to a legislative committee, a legislative seat to a court, and presidential electors to a third tribunal entirely. The burden is what makes contests rarely succeed. Most standards require the contestant to show the irregularity "would have changed" the result, which for a secret ballot means proving whom the bad votes went to. Florida is the notable exception, accepting irregularity "sufficient to change **or place in doubt**" the result (Fla. Stat. § 102.168(3)); Texas asks instead whether the reported outcome "is not the true outcome" and permits voiding the election without determining how individual voters voted (Tex. Elec. Code §§ 221.003, 221.011). A contest also cannot finally resolve a seat in Congress. U.S. Const. art. I § 5 makes each chamber the judge of its own members' elections, so a state contest over a House or Senate seat produces evidence while the chamber produces the member — the House by way of the [[Federal Contested Elections Act]]. Expand with: the fifty-state forum and standard tables beyond the three states worked in the crosswalk, the "no remedy because the term has run" problem, the bond and cost-shifting provisions, and the contest litigation of 2020–2024. This is a stub — created in the 2026-10-07 ASCII map build for [[State Election Contest Crosswalk]]. Expand as noted above. ## See Also - [[State Election Contest Crosswalk]] · [[Recount Trigger Crosswalk]] · [[Post-Election Audit Crosswalk]] - [[Election Certification]] · [[Election Canvass]] · [[Recount]] · [[Quo Warranto]] - [[Federal Contested Elections Act]] · [[Bush v. Gore]]