Ol’ Pence pals (Flake too out there, claiming 35 GOP Senators would vote for conviction if it were a secret ballot)..
—
A foolish repeated claim, as the Senate vote is *not* secret, for the obvious reason they are supposed to be *accountable* to the people.
“A foolish repeated claim, as the Senate vote is *not* secret, for the obvious reason they are supposed to be *accountable* to the people.”
The Constitution allows both houses of Congress to set their own rules. It is conceivable the Senate could vote to use secret ballots for a vote to convict an impeached president. If McConnell decided to vote against Trump, he might allow a rule change permitting a secret ballot to give individual GOP Senators the ability to freely “vote their conscience”. Depending on the level of media hysteria, and the polls of the public, at the time of the vote it is very conceivable more than 20 GOP Senators would vote to convict if given the cover of a secret ballot.