A thread on what (might) happen under a Republican (Jared Kushner) plan to have R state legislatures choose their own slate of Electoral College Electors. It is true Republicans control most state legislatures from D losses over the last 10 years...

When voters elect a President they are choosing EC electors to actually cast ballots for President and some of them can be “faithless” in casting that ballot. That’s not what this is about. They are part of the ballot in a presidential election year.

The plan coming into focus, is to throw enough doubt on the outcome of several “deciding” states with the help probably of the Justice Dept. If there’s enough doubt over the outcome, then (as the plan goes) Republican state legislatures will select (let’s call it)...

“An alternative slate” of EC electors presumably loyal to Trump. Somehow, they will get the Gov or Secy of State for elections to certify that result. Assuming for the moment that can happen (and I’m not sure it can), the slate would go to Congress where, you guessed it...

The House of Representatives waits to certify the state results and presumably seat the winners bc don’t forget, the entire House is up this year. Here’s where the plan starts to fall apart. If the popular vote is a landslide and the results from the states murky...

The selection of an alternate slate of EC will be controversial to say the least. The Speaker of the House can refuse to seat any winner from that state’s election and only seat winners from states that do not have those alternate winners, presumably states where ...

Biden cruised to victory and had “normal” processes. That means none of those state results get certified in the eyes of the House, not Congress-persons, EC electors, no one. It’s as if their election never took place. What does that mean for President?

It means we are in what’s called a “contingent election.” And the presidential election is controlled and conducted in the House of Representatives. But wait, in case you thought there would be one vote for every delegation and Republicans technically control more states....

Think again. The presidential election in the House takes place after the new Congress is sworn in, not in the lame duck session. This is why fooling around with the results is dangerous unclear for one, unclear for all.

Speaker (Pelosi presumably) effectively seats a majority of Dem/Blue states and conducts the contingent election that way. If Biden doesn’t become President bc he can’t get to 270, then the Speaker becomes President under the succession act.

And the courts.... the Supreme Court does not control the rules of the House and what the House does. The SCT can (and might) validate the alternate slate of EC electors although that would be kind of amazing bc it would potentially mean disenfranchising millions of voters

But it will never control what the House does, much in the same way the SCT did not get involved in how the Senate conducted their impeachment trial. So, if Rs want to go down this road, I say all they’ve done is put Nancy Pelosi in charge.

2 major observations from this: 1) the talking points write themselves. Why would Spk Pelosi ever agree to validate the results from a state that arbitrarily threw out their results to create an alternate slate of electors, potentially usurping the authority of the people?

2) this would effectively end/crush the Electoral College for all time. If Republicans want to manipulate EC electors for the benefit of one man, then the Electoral College is not sustainable and should be abolished for all time and immediately.

And given how things have gone and the fact that Republicans have won the popular vote once since 1992, I’m not sure how they plan to ever control the Executive branch ever again. And with gerrymandering becoming less prevalent, the Legislative branch.

A footnote about if no state election is certified and the winners not seated. Only the Senators in the middle of their 6 year term would be functioning in Congress. And based upon the class of Senate seats up, that would give Dems effective control of the chamber..

By a 35-30 margin so Chuck Schumer would be in charge and if there’s no Speaker, then Pat Leahy the Pres pro temp of the Senate becomes Pres under the succession act and would pick a VP.