Legislature to Seek to Reclaim Power to Appoint Electors: Pennsylvania State Sen. Mastriano

Gateway Pundit quoting an interview on Bannon's War Room ^ | November 27, 2020 | Pennsylvania state Senator Doug Mastriano (R-33)

[Dr. Franklin]

Mastriano: “…So, we’re gonna do a resolution between the House and Senate, hopefully today. I’ve spent two hours online trying to coordinate this with my colleagues. And there’s a lot of good people working this here. Saying, that the resolution saying we’re going to take our power back. We’re gonna seat the electors. Now obviously we’re gonna need the support of the leadership of the House and Senate, we’re getting there on that. But we need to act like…”

Bannon: “Hold it, hold it, hold it. I think we got some breaking news here. You’re saying you’re going to get a joint resolution to actually go forward and, the Republicans control the House and Senate, to go forward to basically take the power back from the secretary of state and put it in the state legislature to put forward the electors?”

Mastriano: “That is exactly what we’re gonna do. And so, look, it’s gonna obviously be a struggle. We’re gonna hear the palpitations and you know the outcries of our Governor Wolf and Secretary Boockvar, whose resignation should have happened months ago and she shouldn’t have ever been confirmed. But you know what we have that power and we’re gonna take that power back because there’s so much evidence of shenanigans and fraud, we can’t stand aside and just watch this unfold around us. You know, it’s not about disenfranchising anybody, it’s making sure that every legal vote counted. And if there’s extensive shenanigans out there it’s up to the General Assembly to step in. So we have a fight on our hands and we’re gonna fight. We’re gonna take the fight all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to.”

[freespirit2012]

The legislature determines the process under the federal constitution. It makes no mention of time frame except before the electors meet. If the legislature determines now that in cases of disputed elections, the power of the governor is hereby suspended for that election than that is the process.

[Fido969]

A Twitter spokesperson told Newsweek in a statement: "This account was mistakenly suspended for perceived violations of our impersonation policy. This was an error. We have immediately reversed the decision and the account has been reinstated."

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-twitter-doug-mastriano-ban-1550794

lol.

[semimojo]

The power was delegated to the Commonwealth's voters through an election.

Exactly. And this was a decision made by the PA legislature when it passed and amended the Pennsylvania Election Code.

The legislature is free to change the method of choosing electors but they have to do it via the same process they used the first time - legislation approved by the governor.

[Dr. Franklin]

I am cautious about betting on GOP in PA keeping a united front.. I don’t have faith you won’t see traitors

The Republicans hae a seven seat majority in the Senate and a 23 seat majority in the House. They can suffer a few defections and this will still pass.

[Bellagio]

No... the power was abrogated by statute, not surrendered.

To delegate is to assign or confer a responsibility by proxy/representation and not to absolve the source of such borrowed authority.

"... but federal statutory law states that if two slates of electors are submitted, the slate certified by the governor is preferred by Congress."

LOL! 'preferred'?? That is parliamentary and can be challenged on January 6th, 2021.

Federal statutory law does not trump the constitution. Statutory law must be pursuant to supreme law! It cannot change it, alter, expand, imply, restrict or usurp it. Only a constitutional amendment can do that... or a very corrupt SCOTUS by judicial activist fiat.

[Dr. Franklin]

The legislature is free to change the method of choosing electors but they have to do it via the same process they used the first time - legislation approved by the governor.

Not if it is a plenary power of the state legislature in the U.S. Constitution. There are now five textualist on SCOTUS who will not agree that the governor has any say in the process.

[MAGAthon]

you will like this video:

VIDEO: 7min: 26 Nov: Sky News Australia: Trump should ‘continue legal fight’ because there is ‘industrial scale fraud’ - Alan Jones Show
Eminent law professor David Flint says President Donald Trump should continue his legal fight for as long as he can because not only is there industrial scale voter fraud at hand, but also the question of unequal protection of voters.
“It’s not just fraud, and the fraud is not just self-evident, it would be self-evident to a rookie journalist,” Professor Flint told Sky News host Alan Jones.

“I can’t understand why journalists are throwing around the word ‘unsubstantiated’ when they didn’t in relation to the many charges made against President Trump.” Professor Flint said there is “not only fraud – which is on an industrial scale” but there is also the question of “unequal protection, and that is that voters are being treated differently”.
“There’s been a lot of unlawful changes to the electoral laws, the power to change the laws is vested in the state legislators and it’s often forgotten that they have a primary role,” he said.
“But governors and secretaries of state have tried to change the laws, it’s ineffective.”
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6212418956001

[HamiltonJay]

I have lived in PA for over 30 years.

I don’t personally have faith, that you won’t have enough defectors. The GOP has had control of the legislature for a long long time, yet you wouldn’t know it most of the time.

[Dr. Franklin]

No... the power was abrogated by statute, not surrendered.

Legally and constitutionally, the power was delegated, not abrogated. It can be reclaimed.

Federal statutory law does not trump the constitution.

The Twelth Amendment does not specify what to do if a state submitts two competing slates of presidential electors. Federal statutory law does. It states that when two slates of electors are received the one certified by the state's governor is presumed legitimate unless both houses of Congress vote otherwise. Yes, there is a constitutional argument, which again would involve the federal courts issuing injunctions to governors to certify, or not cerify, slates of electors.

[semimojo]

There are now five textualist on SCOTUS who will not agree that the governor has any say in the process.

We’ll see. ACB is respectful of precedent and SCOTUS was pretty clear in Smiley v Holm that when the constitution gives a power to the state legislature it’s really giving it to the state to use consistent with the state’s constitution.

[BigEdLB]

Hey you Totalitarian Banana Republic Communist B***H. Now what do you say? I am talking to you Secretary of “State”

[Bellagio]

Yes, I left out a word in the sentence.

I meant to say ‘No, the power WAS NOT abrogated by statute, not surrendered’

Though federal statute gives a path(suggestion) to resolve two submitted slates without contest... the supreme law of the constitution indeed ultimately allows EC delegates to be contested on Jan 6. If a 270 majority can’t be formed by the uncontested votes then the election goes into a contingent vote to resolve.

[MAGAthon]

wish someone would analyse the following and see whether it is an accurate analysis or not. I’m using rough percentages, but it would seem Biden COULD NOT have overtaken Trump:

3 Nov updated 7 Nov: In ‘Knife’s Edge’ Pennsylvania, Trump’s Fortunes Rely on His Rural Base
If President Trump is able to outperform the polls in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, it will be because he re-energized white, blue-collar voters in places like Butler County.
By Trip Gabriel and Shane Goldmacher

The Biden campaign expressed confidence that it had run up a cushion of support in early voting, after Democrats returned ***1,641,000 mail-in ballots by Tuesday morning, compared to ***586,000 (APPROX 26%) that were returned by Republicans...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/03/us/politics/pennsylvania-results-trump.html

1,641,000 plus 586,000 equals 2,227,000

18 Nov: US Elections Project: Pennsylvania Early Voting Statistics
Mail Ballots Returned: 2,629,183
Requested ballots: 3,088,123
https://electproject.github.io/Early-Vote-2020G/PA.html

2,629,183 minus 2,227,000 equals 402,183

if ratio of mail ballots was the same as at NYT link:

approx 26 percent of 402,183 ballots would have been for Trump - 104,567.

approx 74 perceent of 402,183 ballots would have been for Biden - 297,615

NYT/Cohn reducing Republican/Trump percentage to 21%:

4 Nov: The Remaining Vote in Pennsylvania Appears to Be Overwhelmingly for Biden
The president leads by nearly 700,000 votes, but there are 1.4 million absentee votes outstanding.
by Nate Cohn
President Trump leads by nearly 700,000 votes in Pennsylvania as of 5 a.m. on Wednesday, and Mr. Biden’s chances depend on whether he can win a large percentage of the more than 1.4 million absentee ballots that remain to be counted...

So far, Mr. Biden has won absentee voters in Pennsylvania, 78 percent to ***21 percent, according to the Secretary of State’s office...

If Mr. Biden won the more than 1.4 million absentee votes by such a large margin, he would net around 800,000 votes — enough to overcome his deficit statewide.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that Mr. Biden will win the remaining absentee vote by quite so much. But so far, his standing in the tabulated absentee vote has almost exactly matched our pre-election projections for the absentee vote by county, based on New York Times/Siena polling and data from L2, a political data vendor.

If anything, the pre-election estimates suggest that Mr. Biden might be expected to do better, because the areas with remaining absentee votes are ***ever so slightly more Democratic than the state as a whole.

And there are possible if still uncertain sources of additional strength for Mr. Biden, ***like absentee ballots that arrive in the days after the election — or the possibility that the count is not yet including ballots that were left in drop boxes on the day of the election...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/04/upshot/pennsylvania-election-results-ballots.html

if 26%, Trump would have received approx. 364,000 more votes.

Biden would receive 1,036,000 votes, gaining only 672,000, still well behind Trump.

there is no reason to go along with NYT/Cohn’s conjecture re Trump only having 21%.

[Dr. Franklin]

We’ll see. ACB is respectful of precedent and SCOTUS was pretty clear in Smiley v Holm...

Smiley v Holm... is distiguishable. That case involved creating Congressional districts. The right to selcet Presidential Electors belongs to the legislature as an electoral body. The court in Smiley v Holm... held The legislature may act as an electoral body, as in the choice of United States Senators under Article I, § 3, prior to the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment. There is quite a lot of precedent in the 19th century of state legislatures choosing the electors without consent of the governor. I wouldn't bet that SCB votes contrary to that historical precedent.

[semimojo]

That case involved creating Congressional districts.

True, but it's the same power granted to the legislature for choosing electors and SCOTUS has said it isn't plenary.

There is quite a lot of precedent in the 19th century of state legislatures choosing the electors without consent of the governor.

Sure, but that was the process the state chose consistent with the state's constitution. I don't know for sure but I bet that process was either enshrined in the state constitution or in legislation.

Clearly, at some point those legislatures passed laws changing the process. They can't now just ignore those laws.

[FreedomNotSafety]

I do know that they have over a year to take action and they did not. Now am I supposed to believe that they will take action? Nope. Aint going to happen it’s just sound and fury, signifying nothing.

This after the fact posturing for the Trump supporters outside the GOP. The PA GOP is not going to rescue the Trump campaign. Like I said they had that chance.

[Dr. Franklin]

They can't now just ignore those laws.

Hmmm...So the SoS, and the PA governor are ignoring those laws, but the legislature must defer to them now? I am fairly confident that the five SCOTUS texualists will agree that legislature in the constitution means just the legislature, not all three branches of state government, or even a second branch. It's the easy way out for them. The Constitution means what it says, and no additional judicial gloss is required to understand it.

[marktwain]

There is a fair amount of precedent that says legislatures cannot delegate legislative power.

It has been ignored for most of 80 years or so, but it is there.

It is pretty clear in the first 150 years.

[Dr. Franklin]

Ah, we couldn’t have the Administrative State without legislative delegation to Executive Branch, or the courts.

[marktwain]

Ah, we couldn’t have the Administrative State without legislative delegation to Executive Branch, or the courts.

Exactly so.