I appreciate the complexities that you provided, and I admit that I was focused on Title 3, which was about Electoral College elections.
You make serious points that are worthy of robust debate, and you presented citations that I need to research on my own, as I said previously that I was focused on Electoral College elections. You accurately pointed out a blind spot of mine.
Still, even if we set Senate elections aside (the 17th amendment as a confounding variable), the question of Electoral College voting is clear. My point that the section that was repealed by Democrats that would have required Electors to be determined on election day or the state legislatures could select Electors still stands. Federal statute expected the elections for President to be resolved ON election day. If it wasn't, state legislatures could step in and choose Electors on their own. On this point, the only question is why would the Democrats repeal this statute unless they wanted an open-ended period to receive votes for Electors?
This then devolves to state election ballots, which have different statutes for when mail-in votes are cast, when they are mailed, when the post office postmarks the ballots, when the ballots are received and processed, when they are counted, and when the counts are reported up the chain to state election officials.
My point is that the states, as a matter of convenience, have bundled Electoral College votes, Congressional votes, and state election votes, onto a single ballot that is processed via state election laws. This has the potential to violate federal timing statutes, especially when the state tries to extend the ballot receipt deadlines for mail-in ballots.
The state can be gracious with late periods for state elections, but federal laws are specific and not subject to state laxity for convenience. Regarding Electors, Congress took away the state legislature's ability to name their choice of Electors if the state counts go on and on past Election Day. My question is why??
-PJ
Good points all. Since the Dems have devised multiple means of padding results AKA stealing elections it is necessary to battle them on several fronts. Making sure votes don’t keep streaming in well past Nov 7 is just one front.