Cletus.D.Yokel wrote:
“Kind of difficult to swear in someone who hasnt been elected.
If the contest goes beyond 31DEC2020, There will be NO CONGRESS to decide the issue.”
For the Dec 15th deadline of the electoral college voting on that day:
The electors come from each of the 50 states; electors are chosen by the states’ legislatures.
And those legislators would be from the current Congress.
If there is still a controversy:
It goes to the House, where each state has a vote; in the current House, the Republicans have the majority (26 or so).
Question;
When are those 26 or so Republicans’ terms up?
In January?
Good help on making my point that we must be completely clear on the process.
The key to my comment was “swearing-in”.
US Congress is dissolved by the calendar.
If there is no “election” and December 31 comes closer, certain things have to happen.
Court actions must be resolved or mooted.
State legislatures are next in line in choosing electors.
Court challengers in this step will not be valid and will not be taken up.
They will be rejected by the clerk.
The last in line is the CURRENT congress who will vote by State delegation.
Each delegation holds, overall, a single vote and arrives -among themselves- at their vote.
The Republicans hold the advantage, having substantially more Republican delegations than Democrats in the House.
Although this ground has not been tread before, the map is topographically familiar to all involved.
The high ground and low lands are well laid out.
If this does not resolve the contest by 31DEC, the only other step is that on January 1, each State’s governor can APPOINT an interim Senator to be seated prior to inauguration day (pence would swear them in).
This will assure a continuity of Congress.
They will hold advise and consent powers going forward.
What their deliberative authority IS, vis-à-vis the election, is unclear.
I may have missed a step in there somewhere but I believe this to be the Constitutional route before us.
If I remember correctly, the U.S. Congress only gets involved in case of a tie. Not habbening.
-SB
They would be from the current state legislature, not the Cogress.