Read on Twitter
There seems to be a lot of misinformation out there regarding how congress is supposed to count the electoral votes. So allow me to I scroll the constitution and explain in a THREAD.
(Please feel free to share)
(Please feel free to share)
The constitution is explicit with the exact time this meeting of the house and senate must take place on the sixth day of January (notable b/c this could fall on any day of the week, vs “the second Tuesday after the first Monday” we usually see), at 1 o’clock in the afternoon.
The president of the senate (Vice President Pence) is the presiding officer. Despite what Grassley said, it sounds like Pence will, indeed, be there. He gets to open letters from each state in alphabetical order that contain the certified results of each states’ Election.
The results are also read out loud to both chambers, with someone tallying the votes (it would be awesome if Katie Porter did this on her whiteboard). Once the states results are added up, Pence is supposed to announce the winner. All is well, nothing to see here... except...
Pence gets to ask if there any objections (like at a wedding ceremony, right?) Objections are only recognized if presented in writing and signed by at least one Senator and one House member.
Here’s where it gets convoluted. Both the senate and house are supposed to deliberate without recess until they come to a conclusion. BUT, if there’s something they can’t figure out right then and there, they can recess (to go out and investigate?)til 10 o’clock the next morning
But then it says if they still can’t count the votes accurately, they have 5 days to figure it all out. This doesn’t seem to make sense, so any legal scholar who wants to weigh in, go right ahead. But, wait... there’s more!
During the break out session to discuss objections with the electoral votes, each member gets 5 minutes to speak up. But the debate can’t last more than 2 hours. This math, of course, doesn’t add up if everyone wanted to speak. But Pelosi/McConnell would need to end debate.
Back to article15, where it deals w/ what to do once both chambers are done deliberating. It says that if *BOTH* chambers agree that a particular state’s votes were compromised,even if they’ve been certified,those votes can be rejected. (Imagine if GOP controlled house & senate!)
Here’s where it gets a little scary. If there is a dispute over whether the state’s electors are legitimate, it’s up to the house and senate to decide which electors to believe. This would explain why trump wanted swing states to chose different electors.
There are scenarios here that are frightening, particularly if the GOP had control over both houses. They could conceivably reject the *certified* votes of a particular state or states. But if both houses don’t agree, votes certified by that state’s governor are counted (phew).
One thing I do not see is how the houses are supposed to conduct their vote to decide to accept the state’s outcome or not. Is it simple majority? Two thirds? Is the vote secret?
The bottom line is that the Electoral College as currently constructed must be abolished if the will of the people is to be honored going forward. It’s not hard to picture a scenario where a democratic president wins the race, but GOP held house/senate reject the results.
Norms have been broken, precedents have now been set. The GOP will most likely bitterly contest every presidential election going forward. There is nothing to lose by accusing secretaries of individual states of rigging an election against them.
With severe gerrymandering and the current political/cultural climate of politics treated like a sports team, it wouldn’t be hard to fathom republicans overturning an election in the not so distant future.
And the sad thing is, they could do it legally, based on rules written to protect a wealthy white slave owning upper class who felt they knew better than anyone else in the country.
I hope this thread illuminated some of what we’re about to endure tomorrow. Anything I might’ve gotten wrong or misinterpreted, feel free to correct and I’ll RT. Thanks!
And here’s more disinformation from trump. As I showed above, only the house and senate concurrently can reject electoral college votes. The president of the senate (VP Pence) is merely there to read off the results https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1346488314157797389
