Important Greg Sargent in WaPo: Rep. Liz Cheney’s fate appears sealed: Republicans are set to oust the Wyoming Republican as the No. 3 in the House GOP leadership, and will most likely replace her with Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, whose … Continue reading
Category Archives: electoral college
This looks great: Election Day is just the beginning of a long and complex process to count, certify, and ultimately inaugurate the next president of the United States. The fourth edition of “After the People Vote: A Guide to the … Continue reading
Oh my: Republican legislators, still steamed about Joe Biden winning Arizona, have been furiously scheming various ways to make it more difficult for people to vote.There’s a bill that would allow only the most faithful party voters to automatically get early ballots and one … Continue reading
The Wisconsin Examiner reports. … Continue reading
I did a lot of handholding on social media for all the people who were worried the courts or state legislatures were going to overturn the results of the election. I explained how unlikely those scenarios were and why. But … Continue reading
Tweet thread starts here. … Continue reading
NYT: Vice President Mike Pence told President Trump on Tuesday that he did not believe he had the power to block congressional certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory in the presidential election despite Mr. Trump’s baseless insistence that he … Continue reading
New Ned in WaPo: President Trump seems to believe that Vice President Pence could overturn the election results when he presides over the congressional counting of electoral votes on Wednesday.Trump is wrong, but any attempt by Pence to intervene on … Continue reading
Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman in the NYT: As president of the Senate, Mr. Pence is expected to preside over the pro forma certification of the Electoral College vote count in front of a joint session of Congress. It is … Continue reading
I have written this piece for The Atlantic. It begins: The 2020 election and its aftermath have laid bare an unhappy truth: Many of the familiar procedures for translating the people’s will into the choice of a president depend on … Continue reading
This guide by Joshua Matz, Norman Eisen, and Harmann Singh could come in very handy. … Continue reading
Josh Douglas for CNN Opinion: Don’t be too nervous about Republican Sen. Josh Hawley’s announcement that he will object to the certification of Joe Biden as President when Congress meets on Jan. 6. His ploy won’t stop Biden from taking the oath of office … Continue reading
I don’t expect this to make a difference in the outcome, but rather only to extend the day as the chambers of Congress consider objections. … Continue reading
Very helpful Politico article on the Jan. 6 state of play: President Donald Trump’s last-gasp bid to overturn his 2020 election defeat appears doomed on Jan. 6, when Congress is set to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.But the byzantine process … Continue reading
WaPo: President Trump and his allies are growing increasingly desperate as Congress prepares to formally receive the votes that will confirm his election loss next week, filing lawsuits against nonexistent entities and even Trump’s own vice president as they try … Continue reading
Important Ned Foley in WaPo: President Trump and his supporters are trying to turn the Jan. 6 congressional session for counting electoral college votes into something that it is not and was never intended to be: a forum for litigating … Continue reading
Neal Katyal and John Monsky NYT oped: Nothing in either the text of the Constitution or the Electoral Count Act gives the vice president any substantive powers. His powers are ministerial, and that circumscribed role makes general sense: The whole … Continue reading
Derek Muller: Earlier, I highlighted the erroneous assertion in some legal briefs that a state legislature has “endorsed” some rival slate of presidential electors. A new lawsuit from Arizona filed in Texas does the same, and more. … Continue reading
But here’s the complaint. … Continue reading
CNN: When Congress met to tally the results of the 2004 presidential election, then-Sen. Barbara Boxer stood alone on the Senate floor to object to President George W. Bush’s reelection victory in Ohio over Democrat John Kerry, forcing the House … Continue reading
CNN: Hours before President Donald Trump retweeted a message for his vice president to “act” in stopping the ratification of the Electoral College, he met for more than an hour in the Oval Office with Mike Pence, whom he has complained recently … Continue reading
WaPo oped: Mike Pence’s conduct on Jan. 6 matters.Not to the outcome of the presidential election, but to the process of its resolution. The vice president can either facilitate President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, or he can resist it. Which he … Continue reading
Interesting stuff on the VP here: THE VP TYPICALLY presides over the certification in his role as the president of the Senate. JONATHAN SWAN from Axios had an excellent report this morning about how President DONALD TRUMP is turning on everyone, and how he would … Continue reading
CNN: Alabama GOP Rep. Mo Brooks and fellow House conservatives met privately on Monday with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence as the lawmakers prepared to mount a long-shot bid in January to overturn the Electoral College results that made … Continue reading
Derek at Law & Liberty: The Electoral College is a designedly decentralized process for the selection of the President of the United States. Each State may choose its presidential electors in the manner that the legislature deems appropriate.The State of … Continue reading
Derek Muller with the fact check. … Continue reading
John Eastman should be ashamed of this petition for cert and motion to expedite. I won’t go through all of the ridiculous things here, but this is an attempt to challenge PA Supreme Court cases in October and mid-November. There … Continue reading
In the Dec 18, 2020, New Yorker, Steve Coll notes that the outdated 1887 Law of Electoral Count enables Trump’s allies to create more havoc when the joint session of Congress meets January 6, 2021, for the official count of the electors’ votes. … Continue reading
Archived video. … Continue reading
Jerry Goldfeder NYDN oped: Biden shouldn’t worry. Even if Trump supporters can get the required members of Congress to sign on to such objections, and the safe harbor protections are ignored, these protests will still not change the outcome.That’s because … Continue reading
NYT: Breaking with President Trump’s drive to overturn his election loss, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky on Tuesday congratulated President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on his victory and began a campaign to keep fellow Republicans from joining a doomed last-ditch … Continue reading
The Hill: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is urging Republicans not to object during Congress’s count and certification of the Electoral College vote next month.McConnell’s comments were made during a caucus call on Tuesday, according to a source familiar with the call, … Continue reading
Lessig tries to to suss out what’s up with the fake alternative electors the Trump team assembled yesterday. … Continue reading
Kevin Johnson Governing oped. … Continue reading
WaPo: Republicans in six states won by President-elect Joe Biden held their own electoral college-style votes Monday for President Trump — hoping that future court decisions would throw out Biden’s votes and count the GOP ones instead.These votes have no … Continue reading
So troubling. … Continue reading
The Detroit News reports. … Continue reading
Here’s the video. These electors have neither been certified by state executives nor purportedly appointed by state legislators. They don’t have legal authority and so this does not affect the counting of Electoral College votes. But it does show that … Continue reading
NYT: Even if a senator did agree, constitutional scholars say the process is intended to be an arduous one. Once an objection is heard from a member of each house of Congress, senators and representatives will retreat to their chambers … Continue reading
NYT reports. … Continue reading
Ned Foley WaPo oped: It’s over. At that point, the outcome can’t be changed. New electors can’t be appointed in any state, by legislatures or any other means. No time machine exists to undo the meetings of each state’s electors … Continue reading
Politico: Monday’s Electoral College vote formalizing Joe Biden’s presidential win will be the culmination of months of orchestration by the Biden campaign to ensure minimum drama — and maximum coronavirus safety — while President Donald Trump’s flailing bid to remain … Continue reading
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel/AP: Wisconsin faces another effort seeking to overturn the Nov. 3 presidential election — this time in the U.S. Supreme Court — as the state becomes the only one in the nation to miss a federal deadline to finalize its … Continue reading
Although it is not yet reflected on the docket, Justice Alito has reportedly set a deadline of December 9 for the state of PA to respond to Rep. Kelly’s petition seeking to nullify the vote in Pennsylvania (a petition I … Continue reading
Zach Montellaro for Politico. … Continue reading
Sean Parnell blogs. … Continue reading
Kevin Johnson for The Fulcrum. … Continue reading
Do yourself a favor and read Franita Tolson in the NYT on the 1876 election and Samuel Randall: In the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s election, scholars and political commentators have been busy gaming out doomsday scenarios on the small, … Continue reading
Can’t wait to read this (hopefully not timely) one from Justin Levitt (forthcoming NYU L. Rev.). Here is the abstract: Questions about the state legislative role in determining the identity of presidential electors and electoral slates, and the permissible extent … Continue reading
John W. Burgess, writing in the 1888 Political Science Quarterly, recognized that the Electoral Count Act (adopted after the disputed 1876 election) provides unduly complex and contradictory set rules for choosing the president and gave too much power to the … Continue reading