Powerlineblog points that the Democrats have this fantasy that Trump will refuse to accept defeat. (Like they did in 2016?) But the 12th Amendment defines the procedure pretty clearly:
The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice.
Every state gets one vote. While Democrats have a majority of Representatives right now, if you group them by state, how many states are majority Democrat Representatives and how many majority Republican Representatives? Much of the Democrat majority in the House are high population states like California and New York, where having most of them being Democrat assures only that state of picking Biden. But the total number of Representatives is very close to the number of Electoral votes. Has anyone added up the number of D and R Representatives by state? I suspect that the preponderance of Democrats in single states will make a House vote a Trump victory, with predictable ranting about Trump stealing the election.
One of you clever people noticed:
The Twelfth Amendment mandates Congress assemble in joint session to count the electoral votes and declare the winners of the election.[106] The session is ordinarily required to take place on January 6 in the calendar year immediately following the meetings of the presidential electors.[107] Since the Twentieth Amendment, the newly elected Congress declares the winner of the election; all elections before 1936 were determined by the outgoing House.
So a Republican sweep of Congress, which I expect, would still likely put Trump back in office and Nancy Pelosi in apoplexy.
I believe Mark Levin was talking about this a week or so ago. By Electoral college, there is one total, depending on states that are carried by one party or the other. Once it goes to the House of Representatives, as you say, each state gets a single vote.
ReplyDeleteI predict if it is a tie, states that went to Trump will magically have any container capable of containing ballots suddenly appearing, and we'll be a banana republic with 105% of the population voting for one party.
No problem, they can just refuse to seat enough of the Republican House winners in November, assuming of course they don't 2018 California ballot harvest them out of existence before the new Congress is seated. See this for possible tactics if the Democrats are willing to slaughter "the sacred cow of voting." Which would be particularly dangerous because then much if not most of the nation's population would become superfluous to our Ruling Class.
ReplyDeleteR has it by 1 (26), I believe.
ReplyDeleteAny voting in the House and Senate takes place some days after the newly elected members have taken the oath of office and been seated, so it is very possible for the makeup of at least one state delegation to have changed from today.
ReplyDeleteBut suppose that neither the House nor the Senate elections are complete - suppose paper ballots are contested for all elections. What happens then?
ReplyDeleteBoth Trump and Pence have terms in office that have expired. No new President or VP are available to take the office.
Does the Speaker of the House then become president under the rules of succession?
President Nancy Pelosi????
No, the masses march on DC. (I hope.)
ReplyDeleteJohnG said...
ReplyDeleteBut suppose that neither the House nor the Senate elections are complete - suppose paper ballots are contested for all elections. What happens then?
Both Trump and Pence have terms in office that have expired. No new President or VP are available to take the office.
Does the Speaker of the House then become president under the rules of succession?
That's my understanding, but I haven't ran it to ground. It would seem to be from Amendment 20, Section 3, which ends:
If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.
I gather the law previously established makes the Speaker of the House a "temporary" President, which makes sense given that the Speaker is right after the President and Vice President in the line of succession.
Clayton Cramer said...
No, the masses march on DC. (I hope.)
And get scythed down by artillery etc.? The enemy gets a vote in how such a protest gets received, and I don't think our enemies care about optics like the prior participants of Color Revolutions had to, seeing as how the optics are ultimately about limiting more direct US intervention.