ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Both Presidential campaigns are preparing teams of lawyers to deal with any potential election issues, but a Stetson Law Professor said you shouldn’t be alarmed, it’s actually very normal, especially in a state like Florida which is no stranger to recounts.

“It's not unusual at all to have litigation follow our elections. It may be unfortunate because we would like to have the answers, and oftentimes the presence of of litigation doesn't necessarily mean there's something wrong it just happens,” said Louis Virelli, Professor of Law at Stetson University College of Law. 

Professor Virelli said candidates having lawyers ready ahead of a big election just makes sense, and he said it’s a complete misconception that if elections don’t end on Tuesday night, there’s something wrong. 

Virelli said many elections take days to be completed, but you don’t always hear about it. This year, particularly with COVID, he said could take longer to determine a winner because elections officials will likely have more ballots to still count since so many people voted by mail. 

Despite Florida’s history, Vitelli said elections officials have learned a lot over the last two decades and streamlined early voting and absentee voting. He said Florida is actually ahead of the curve and you can rest easy knowing our elections system will work exactly how it should. 

“There is nothing to indicate the system isn't working, in general, the way it should and people shouldn't be nervous about the hiring of lawyers in advance that's just careful planning. Hopefully, we have a resolution with the election that is easy and smooth and we should all be hopeful for that because it's not impossible,” said Vitelli.