[olezip]

But the second part about when THEY vote speaks of the Electors voting for the President.

The point is that we have an Election Day for the popular vote. Election Day is singular, not election days or weeks.

Anything other than Election Day compromises the integrity of the vote, delays the tabulation, and opens the window for large scale voter fraud.

[Political Junkie Too]

The point is that we have an Election Day for the popular vote. Election Day is singular, not election days or weeks.

But we don't. We have early voting, too. What we had was an election deadline, after which tallies were reported.

What these states are doing is allowing voting to continue after tallies are reported. They are allowing anonymous voters to submit ballots.

But to the point of this discussion, "popular voting" for the President is a proxy vote. People are really voting for Electors to the Electoral College. That people "vote" for this at all is a Constitutional power delegated to the state legislatures to decide; not the courts, not the governors, the legislatures.

The Constitution sets a date for when the Electoral College meets, and that date must be the same in every state across the country.

Any state that tries to use the courts to overturn the legislature's power to set the date for elections for Electors is violating the Constitution. Any legislature that tries to fight this in court by countering the judicial arguments is playing into their trap. The legislatures must tell the courts that their argument is moot because they have no jurisdiction in the matter.

Where it gets murky is that there are other elections on the same ballot with the Electors. These courts would have jurisdiction over those votes, but not the top vote. The solution is to either split the ballot into two, or for the legislature to require the top vote for President to be voided on all ballots received after the legislature's deadline, not the court's deadline.

What the Democrats are trying to do is create delays that impact the Electoral College. What I'm pointing out is that the Electoral College is set in the Constitution -- any state that misses it is considered abstained; they cannot come back after the Electoral College meets and demand that their votes be included.

As an example, look at the timeline of the vote in 2000 in Florida (Electoral College safe harbor date is December 12, meets on December 18):

• November 7, 2000 - Election Day
• November 14, 2000 - Deadline for certifying the election.
• November 15, 2000
  • Broward and Dade counties ignore deadline and continue manual recounting.
  • Florida state Supreme Court denies petitions to stop recounts after deadline.
  • Florida Secretary of State announces she will not include further returns from the counties.
• November 16, 2000
  • Gore campaign files a challenge to the certified results.
  • Florida Supreme Court allows West Palm Beach to continue manual recounts.
• November 17, 2000 - Florida Supreme Court bars Secretary of State from certifying the election "until further order of the court."
• November 20, 2000 - Florida Supreme Court hears arguments regarding inclusion of hand-recounted ballots.
• November 21, 2000 - Florida Supreme Court rules manual recounts can continue.
• November 22, 2000 - Bush campaign files in federal court for review of Florida Supreme Court ruling.
• November 23, 2000 - Gore campaign files in Florida Supreme Court to force Dade county to continue recounts. Court denies request.
• November 24, 2000 - US Supreme Court agrees to hear case.
• November 26, 2000 - Florida Secretary of State certifies election.
• November 27, 2000 - Gore campaign files to contest the Florida election.
• December 1, 2000 - US Supreme Court hears oral arguments.
• December 2, 2000 - Florida Circuit Court begins election contest trial.
• December 4, 2000
  • US Supreme Court vacates Florida Supreme Court decision.
  • Florida Circuit Court rules against Gore campaign.
• December 7, 2000
  • Florida Supreme Court hears appeal of Florida Circuit Court ruling.
  • Florida legislature issues proclamation calling for special session to consider appointing Electors.
• December 8, 2000
  • Florida Supreme Court reverses Circuit Court ruling against Gore campaign.
  • Bush campaign seeks stay of Florida Supreme Court ruling.
  • Florida legislature meets in special session and adjourns to meet again on December 12.
• December 9, 2000
  • Florida begins manual recount of "undervote" ballots.
  • Florida Supreme Court denies Bush campaign request for stay of order.
  • US Supreme Court issues stay to stop manual recounts.
• December 11, 2000 - US Supreme Court hears oral arguments on Florida recount.
• December 12, 2000
  • Florida legislature meets and approves 25 Electors pledged to Bush.
  • US Supreme Court issues ruling: 7-2 to overturn Florida Supreme Court ruling on recounts, saying that recounts must be statewide for "equal protection;" 5-4 that remedies not possible by deadlines.
• December 13, 2000 - Gore campaign concedes Florida election, declares Bush the winner.
• December 18, 2000 - Electoral College meets and selects George W. Bush as President.

Now, shift that timeline by another 9 days due to pushing out the return of "mail-in" ballots. That is the chaos that Democrats want to inject into the 2020 election in at least five states. The clause in Article II Section 1 mandating the Electoral College meet on the same day is what ultimately prevents this from spilling over into the new year.

There is no way for any doomsday scenario resulting in Nancy Pelosi becoming President from happening. The Electoral College will meet whether these states participate or not. If they do not participate, the 270 vote threshold for majority will be reduced by half the Electoral votes of the states that fail to participate.

-PJ