Separate Slates
The Electoral College, state by state, formalized its votes in the presidential election. They’re the only votes that count, according to the Constitution. And it’s not official official until counted in Congress early next month.
Electors in the states yesterday provided Joe Biden with 306 votes, 36 more than the 270 needed. And more and more Republicans are saying that’s that and it’s time to either recognize Biden as the next president, or keep quiet. Iowa’s Charles Grassley, when asked if he now recognized Biden as president-elect, said, “I don’t have to. The Constitution does.”
But Republicans in multiple states, including Pennsylvania, have put forth alternate slates of electors, forcing the state legislatures in those states to choose. Pennsylvania is one of those. In short, Article 2 of the Constitution says state legislators control selection of the electors. The GOP-majority legislature in Pennsylvania could simply recognize the Republican slate of electors given all the fraud in the vote there and make them the true electoral college voters.
That’s clearly a long shot, but it shows a rather novel way of holding state representatives’ feet to the fire. That’s worthy of something.
Here’s my fear…that so many Republicans are quietly glad to have Donald Trump gone that they’re willing to roll over on investigating election fraud. Sure, they’d rather have had a Republican in the White House, but they are quick to make lemonade because of the disruption to their comfort level he caused. More on that another day.
The problem with that is that this isn’t going to be the only time fraud is perpetrated. And the fraudsters, emboldened with what they got away with this time, will ramp up their efforts going forward, tainting future elections.
That’s why it is vitally important to not simply sweep the allegations under the rug and, as some assert, “move on for the sake of our country”. The “sake of our country” depends on elections we can believe in. It’s not this one…and it won’t be the next one either, without action.
