Weekly Opinion Editorial
UNIFORM VOTING PROCEDURES
NEEDED!
by Steve Fair
How the president is elected in America is laid out in the U.S. Constitution. It states in Article II, Section 1, each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of Electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which may be entitled in the Congress. It also authorizes Congress to determine the day Electors vote, which in 2020 is December 14th. Thirty states, including Oklahoma, ‘bind’ their Electors to the election results in the state and can replace an Elector if they attempt to be unfaithful. After the 538 Electors vote in each of the individual state, each state reports the results to Congress. Those results must be received by December 23rd.
On January 6, 2021, in front of a joint
session of Congress, the Senate President (US Vice President Pence) will open alphabetically
each state’s Elector vote submission and four tellers (two from each chamber) will
confirm the votes. The Vice President will
then announce the results. Members of
Congress may object to the returns from any individual state as they are
announced. Objections to individual state returns must be made in writing by at
least one Member each of the Senate and House of Representatives. If an
objection meets these requirements, the joint session recesses and the two
houses separate and debate the question in their respective chambers for a
maximum of two hours. The two chambers then vote separately to accept or reject
the objection. They then reassemble in joint session, and announce the results
of their respective votes. An objection to a state’s electoral vote must be
approved by both houses in order for any contested votes to be excluded. Objections to the Electoral College votes
were recorded in 1969 and 2005. In both those
cases, the House and Senate rejected the objections and the votes in question
were counted.
In the case of an
Electoral College deadlock between two candidates (269 to 269) or if no
candidate receives the majority of votes, a “contingent election” is held. The
election of the President then goes to the House of Representatives. Each state
‘delegation’ casts one vote for one of the top three contenders to determine a
winner. Two presidential
elections in American history was decided by the House- in 1800 and 1824. Four observations about the 2020
presidential election:
First, Congress
declares the winner of the presidential election, not the media. The constitutional process is clear. Until the Electors vote December 14th,
there is no president-elect. For the
media, or anyone else, to declare a winner before the 14th is pre-mature.
Second, the 2020
presidential race was very close. Vice
President Biden’s lead in three states is razor thin. Arizona (11 electoral votes) was decided by
11,000 votes, Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes) by 69,000, and Georgia (16
electoral votes) by 14,000 votes. If those
three states’ electoral votes reverted to President Trump, he would win
re-election with 279 electoral votes.
Biden’s margin of victory, if it does stand, is being taunted by the
media as a landslide, but it was far from that.
Third, if the race
is thrown into the House of Representatives, Trump will likely be
re-elected. There are thirty (30) states
whose delegation is majority Republican. Democrats know that and are fighting to avoid
that. That is why the legal fight will
be waged in the states.
Fourth, the courts
will decide if election laws in the states were followed. If the laws were followed, then the results
will likely stand. If the laws were not
followed, then recounts will follow and possibly even a revote in a state. A revote has never happened and courts shy
away from overturning elections, but it is a possibility.
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