Tag Archives: electoral college

Electoral College

By tmess2 | Published December 13, 2020

One of the often misunderstood aspects of U.S. elections is how the popular vote relates to the election of the President.  While, in the majority of the states, the ballot simply lists the candidates for President (along with the Vice-Presidential running mate), voters are effectively voting for a slate of electors.  The winning slate in each state then assembles on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December at the location and time designated by that state.  After assembling, the electors for the state cast a vote for President and a vote for Vice-President.  The votes are then counted, and the electors complete six certificates of vote recording the votes of the electors for that state.  Each certificate of vote is paired with one of the previously completed certificates of ascertainment.  Federal law then directs what happens with the six certificates of vote with one going to the President of the Senate (in practice, the clerk of the Senate), two to the national archives, two to the secretary of state of the individual state, and one to the federal district court for that state.

Normally, the meeting of the electoral college is a big ceremonial event.  With Covid-19 and the potential for protests to get out of control, it appears that most of the states are planning on holding scaled-down events.

The fringe element of Trump supporters (and President Putin) are hoping for some last minute drama for Monday, but that is practically impossible for several reasons.  First, earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld state laws requiring electors to vote for the presidential candidate to whom they are pledged.  While states have different laws on so-called faithless electors,  the net effect of those laws is that sixty-nine Biden electors are from states that replace an elector and cancel the electors vote if the elector fails to follow through on their pledge, sixty are from states that fine the elector, seventy-one are from states with pledges but no enforcement provision, and one hundred six are from states with no law on this issue.  That means that, at most, there are 237 Biden electors who could defect. Continue Reading...

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Supreme Court — The COVID-19 Term (Updated)

By tmess2 | Published June 26, 2020

In normal years, the Supreme Court would probably have wrapped up business for the term by now.  It has been a long time since the last time that the Supreme Court was still issuing opinions in an argued case after June.  There is still a chance that the Supreme Court might finish this term by June 30, but we are getting mixed messages from the court.  (I do expect to see opinions in all of the cases before the Supreme Court recesses, but there is a chance that some cases could be set for reargument in the fall.)

On the one hand, we have yet to get any opinions from the May arguments.  While the May arguments were two weeks later than the usual time for the April arguments, it is usual to have some of the April opinions by the early part of June.  We also have not seen the pace of opinions pick up.  In the last weeks of the term, it is not unusual to see three or more opinion days per week, and multiple opinions on each opinion day.   At the present time, while we have had second opinion days for the last two weeks, we have only gotten a total of five opinions over the last two weeks (as opposed to the more usual eight to ten opinions per week).  And the Supreme Court has only announced two opinion days for this upcoming week.

On the other hand, the Supreme Court has announced that they will have a conference on Wednesday and release orders on Thursday (rather than the normal Monday order day).  That sounds like Wednesday could be the “wrap-up” conference. Continue Reading...

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The End

By tmess2 | Published December 18, 2016

This year’s elections saw a lot of unusual, unexpected, and unprecedented developments.  So nobody should be shocked at any unexpected developments when the electoral college meets on Monday.  Having said that, Democratic activists have been barking up the wrong tree by emphasizing the national popular vote.  The reason why this strategy was guaranteed to backfire is the nature of the electoral college.

The electors are not randomly chosen people.  They are local politicians and activists who are nominated by their state party.  In short, they are not the people who are likely to surrender control of the White House to the other party.  By the rules that are currently in place, the Republicans have won the White House.  So while, the Constitution, theoretically, allows these electors to vote for Hillary, practically these electors will not vote for Hillary.

Continue Reading...

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