In an article for Slate, University of California law professor Richard Hasen explained that in addition to the devastating human tragedy brought on by Hurricane Matthew, the storm could also inflict “dire electoral implications” that could fuel Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s claims of election rigging.

Donald Trump has consistently pushed voter fraud conspiracy theories throughout this election, including invoking right-wing media’s voter fraud myth to support strict voter ID laws and suggesting that the election might be rigged, despite repeated debunkings by numerous media outlets.

In an October 6 article, Hasen warned that Hurricane Matthew “may have dire electoral implications” since Florida is “key to Donald Trump’s chances of victory” and the storm “could have major impacts on voter registration and voting.” Hasen pointed to Hurricane Sandy as an empirical example of a natural disaster that caused “a number of negative effects on [an] election” including reduced turnout, polling location consolidation, and rumored voter fraud. Hasen called the potential scenario “a nightmare in the making” because “we already have Donald Trump telling voters that the election is rigged” so “any attempt to try to accommodate … voters will be second-guessed, challenged, and likely litigated”:

If Hurricane Matthew is as devastating to Florida as forecasters have predicted, it could be a human tragedy costing people their lives, health, homes, and personal property. Beyond that initial tragedy, though, the storm also may have dire electoral implications, potentially affecting the outcome of the 2016 presidential election and landing emergency election litigation from Florida once again before the (now-deadlocked) United States Supreme Court.

Florida is seen as a state key to Donald Trump’s chances of victory over Hillary Clinton for the presidency, and this storm could have major impacts on voter registration and voting.

Voter registration in Florida closes in just five days. According to Professor Dan Smith of the University of Florida, in the last five days of registration in 2012, 50,000 Florida voters signed up to vote. Many who might normally sign up to vote at the last minute are now following Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s order to flee the affected areas of the state, and they are not likely to register to vote on their way out or drop ballots in closed post offices or soon-to-be-flooded post office boxes. Hillary Clinton’s campaign has already called for voter registration deadlines to be extended, but the Republican governor has already turned down that request.

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We can also learn much of what post-storm voting could look like from the response to Superstorm Sandy, which hit the Eastern Seaboard in 2012, and caused great damage in New York and New Jersey just before Election Day. According to a study by Professor Robert M. Stein of Rice University, Sandy had a number of negative effects on the election in the impacted regions. Turnout went down. Polling places were consolidated. Jurisdictions differed in how they treated displaced voters. There was confusion and chaos in some affected areas.

Perhaps most disturbingly, some New Jersey jurisdictions relaxed rules for voting on the fly, including allowing voting by fax and by email. These measures violated New Jersey law, and a Rutgers study found that they may even have led to some fraudulent voting.

Just imagine if any of this happens in Florida after Matthew. We already have Donald Trump telling voters that the election is rigged. Any attempt to try to accommodate, or fail to accommodate, voters will be second-guessed, challenged, and likely litigated.

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With Trump’s uncertainty about whether he would concede a close election to Clinton, this is a nightmare in the making. Let’s hope, for the sake of Floridians and all of us, that this storm is not as bad as it appears it will be.