Category Archives: electoral college

Must-read CNN Oped by Judge Luttig: “The Republican blueprint to steal the 2024 election”

April 27, 2022, 6:59 amchicanery, election subversion risk, electoral college, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Judge Luttig: That objective is not somehow to rescind the 2020 election, as they would have us believe. That’s constitutionally impossible. Trump’s and the Republicans’ far more ambitious objective is to execute successfully in 2024 the very same plan… Continue reading

Will there be a “spoiler” in 2024?

April 25, 2022, 7:07 amalternative voting systems, electoral college, political partiesNed Foley

Andrew Yang is the guest on the new must-listen episode of Sarah Longwell’s Focus Group podcast. They discuss the possibility of a significant third-party, or independent, candidate in the 2024 presidential race. Yang, who’s started his own Forward Party, essentially… Continue reading

“Lawmakers worry 2020 will provide a blueprint for stealing a future election”

April 17, 2022, 4:08 pmelection subversion risk, electoral collegeRick Hasen

NBC News: Congress is trying to strengthen the law, though with little to show for its work. For much of the past year, Democratic lawmakers who control both houses focused instead on broader election reform aimed at expanding… Continue reading

“Here’s What Electoral Count Act Reform Should Look Like”

April 5, 2022, 12:12 pmelectoral collegeRick Hasen

Thomas Berry of Cato and Genevieve Nadeau of Protect Democracy offer these ideas over at Lawfare.

Breaking: American Law Institute Issues Proposals for Electoral Count Act Reform Endorsed by Key Bipartisan Legal Leaders

April 4, 2022, 7:23 amelection subversion risk, electoral collegeRick Hasen

This could well have large influence over ECA reform, not only for its substance but for who is behind the set of endorsements: At the invitation of the leadership of The American Law Institute, a group whose members span a… Continue reading

Arizona’s new proof of citizenship law treats presidential & congressional voters differently, a constitutional distinction in federal power over elections

March 31, 2022, 12:10 pmElections Clause, electoral collegeDerek Muller

Rick linked to an NPR story on Arizona’s HB 2492, and this line caught my eye: “Under HB 2492, if elections officials can’t find evidence that a federally registered voter is a U.S. citizen, that voter can’t vote by… Continue reading

“Inside Pence-world’s preparation for a Jan. 6 legal showdown” (Politico Obtains Memo to Pence on Counting Electoral College Votes)

March 30, 2022, 5:58 pmelectoral collegeRick Hasen

Politico: As forces loyal to Donald Trump began calling on Mike Pence to single-handedly stop Joe Biden from becoming president, the then-vice president dashed off a request in late 2020 to his top lawyer: Just how much power… Continue reading

“‘A Mystifying and Distorting Factor:’ The Electoral College and American Democracy (Reviewing Jesse Wegman, ‘Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College’)”

March 27, 2022, 5:11 amelectoral collegeDerek Muller

A book review from Kate Shaw, forthcoming in the Michigan Law Review: As the 2020 presidential election made clear, the Electoral College is a profoundly dangerous institution. American constitutional democracy survived that election and its aftermath, emerging battered and… Continue reading

“Group Wanted to Kidnap Michigan Governor and Block Biden’s Election, Plotter Says”

March 25, 2022, 2:20 pmelectoral collegeDerek Muller

New York Times: To hear Ty Garbin tell it, the kidnapping of Michigan’s Democratic governor would have been just the beginning.By abducting Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Mr. Garbin and other plotters hoped, he said, to set off a chain of… Continue reading

“Virginia Thomas urged White House chief to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 election, texts show”

March 24, 2022, 2:41 pmelection subversion risk, electoral collegeDerek Muller

Bob Woodward and Robert Costa in the Washington Post: Virginia Thomas, a conservative activist married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, repeatedly pressed White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election… Continue reading

Mo Brooks: Trump asked me to “hold a new special election for the presidency”

March 23, 2022, 2:24 pmelectoral collegeDerek Muller

For Alabama.com, relaying this statement from Brooks: President Trump asked me to rescind the 2020 elections, immediately remove Joe Biden from the White House, immediately put President Trump back in the White House, and hold a new special election… Continue reading

“How Brian Kemp Resisted Trump’s Pressure to Overturn the Georgia Election Results”

March 21, 2022, 6:00 pmelectoral college, legislation and legislaturesDerek Muller

Long read in Politico Magazine from Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. An excerpt: Ahead of a Dec. 3 fundraiser at Truist Park, Kemp called a meeting with the two senators and three of their top aides to hash the… Continue reading

“Another Jan. 6 mystery revealed: Pence’s second script rewrite”

March 16, 2022, 7:26 amelection subversion risk, electoral collegeRick Hasen

Politico: It turns out Mike Pence made more than one major change to the vice presidential script for presiding over the Jan. 6 counting of electoral votes.Pence’s decision to craft and employ his own unprecedented language as he… Continue reading

Can Congress adjudicate disputes on the validity of electoral votes?

March 10, 2022, 6:41 amelectoral collegeDerek Muller

Former federal judge J. Michael Luttig writes in a recent New York Times op-ed, “Nothing in the Constitution empowers Congress to decide the validity of the electoral slates submitted by the states.” Earlier, he’d written in a Wall Street Journal… Continue reading