Posted on 11/30/2016 9:50:35 AM PST by drewh
Anti-Trump forces are apparently planning an all out legal assault on the Electoral College in a last ditch effort to keep Donald Trump from taking office in the White House. The plan? To file legal action in all 29 states which have laws that prohibit electors from “voting their conscience.” In other words, laws that prevent electors from going against the state’s popular vote.
The inside scoop on what is being planned:
Leaders of the effort, mainly Democrats, have plans to challenge laws in the 29 states that force electors to support their party’s candidate. Those laws have never been tested, leaving some constitutional experts to argue they’re in conflict with the founders’ intention to establish a body that can evaluate the fitness of candidates for office and vote accordingly.
They’d still have to get 37 Republican electors to turn against Trump to have an impact on the election outcome. That’s going to be a tough task especially because there have been few reports that Republican electors are willing to abandon their party to vote against Trump. Sources said they will also have a coalition of lawyers that will be ready to defend (for free) anyone who votes in opposition to their party’s candidate when then the Electoral College meets on December 19.
Last week, Lawrence Lessig, a well-known professor of law at Harvard University and a political activist, penned an opinion piece in The Washington Post encouraging electors to cast their votes for Clinton despite Trump winning more votes in the Electoral College. His theory is that, while it has never been tested like this, the Electoral College is a “safety valve” that is intended “to confirm — or not — the people’s choice.
Other legal scholars believe that if the Electoral College abandons Trump, it may go against the rule of law. “Turning the electors into mighty platonic guardians doesn’t seem to be the right way to go,” UC Irvine Law Professor Rick Hasen wrote in a Friday blog post.
“So yes, I’d love to get rid of the Electoral College,” he wrote. “But not ignore it in an election where everyone agreed it was the set of rules to use.” LawNewz.com will follow this legal effort closely, and update you on this website.
So let’s say they win, and the electors vote exactly as they would have otherwise. Why do you think they volunteered to be electors? Somebody put a gun to their head? The post is hereditary? They knew about the law requiring them to vote according to the popular vote in their state, and they were ok with it. But go ahead. Do spend all your money on this nonsense. Unca George will give you more.
As I recall, the Constitution leaves it to the states to manage their electors how they see fit.
Democrats are threatening the system because they lost. Sour grapes.
The irony is thick with the left.
No, it doesn't.
It gives smaller and less populated states a voice in what happens in the country.
The number of electors is the same as the number of representatives from each state.
Just like the laws in this country are not decided by popular vote, but by the what the reps from each state say their state wants, so with the president.
Each states electors ARE voting for or should be voting for, the popular for FOR THEIR STATE.
The electoral college, giving a greater voice to less populous states, ensures that the whole nation is not overwhelmed by the popular vote that a democracy would give.
Do we really want a few blue, urban areas along the coasts to decide the fate of the entire nation?
The electoral college is also a buffer against election fraud.
This country is NOT a democracy, which many people don't understand. It's a representative republic of states.
The Constitution limits what the federal government can do and the rest is left up to the individual states.
Those laws don’t “prevent” any such thing. They merely impose a fine for non compliance. That fine can easily be negated by a third party being willing to pay it and maybe a little candy for the trouble.
Actually, that is Constitutionally possible.
I think a lot, and I mean a LOT, of them are terrified they are finally going to pay for their crimes. I think wikileaks may be the tip of the iceberg of the corruption that has been going on for 20-30 years. I think the stock and bond markets may have had some very interesting influences on them that may come to a screeching halt if the swamp really is drained.
OK I see where you are coming from I was just looking at the current amended document. The founders expectation came about because they never factored political parties into the equation. These they called “factions” and loathed them. The first, the Democrat-Republican, was created to stop Hamilton and became today’s Democrats.
It is somewhat ironic that the House has factored in only one election and that provoked the 12th amendment designed to prevent 1800 from happening again.
Maine does something like that with its electors...should the system be adopted nation wide it would shut the naysayers up real fast!
Good luck with that.
It would be interesting if Illinois downstaters began petitioning the congress for their own state separate from Cook county and Chicago...after all their interests and the interests of the urbanized northwest differ sharply. What would Chicago and the Dem’s in Peoria do if the whole of the downstaters went civil disobedient on them?
LOVE this passage.
LOVE the book of Isaiah!
I see what you did there!
Sorry to burst your bubble but the Blue states are net positive contributors of federal taxes and that is likely due to the cities. Their inhabitants who actually produce these goods and pay those taxes also vote red but their votes are overwhelmed by those of the non-producers.
The whole concept of “civilization” comes from cities and there has been no civilization worthy of the name which did not have a major city at its center.
If Republicans could neutralize the parasitic class the cities would be republican. Our cities today reflect racist policies of the democrat party which drove millions of blacks from the South so rapidly that we still haven’t properly assimilated them. If we can show this group how Democrat programs have destroyed the black family and made areas of these cities a hellhole for all concerned we can win them back.
Blacks made up the core of the Republican party for decades basically until the democrat governors forced a showdown with the fedgov in the 60s and it was seen to have concern with their rights so Blacks considered the fedgov their friend. Even though the mechanism to enforce civil rights laws was established by Republicans, blacks turned to the Welfare policies of the Democrats.
Yeah, I was thinking of the current document.
The House also determined the president in the 1824 election.
Thanks for the reference. I have closely studied that election primarily in reference to Hamilton’s role in creating the issue and in resolving the dilemma.
Electors are unnecessary.
Just post the tally.
Another example of the Marxist Democrats “nullification” campaigns against American institution, customs, values, and esteem.
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