The Future of Our Democracy Will Come Down To State Legislatures

[Nevilledog]

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Democracy Docket
@DemocracyDocket
"The GOP knows that if they can maintain control of key state legislatures this Nov., they can capture the White House in 2024 — no matter what the voters say. It is not an overstatement: The 2024 presidential election could effectively be decided in 2022."

democracydocket.com
The Future of Our Democracy Will Come Down To State Legislatures
Read the latest by Daniel Squadron.
10:00 AM · Jan 14, 2022

https://www.democracydocket.com/news/the-future-of-our-democracy-will-come-down-to-state-legislatures/

The dangerous constitutional theory that gives state legislatures unprecedented power over elections seems almost fantastical — it is also a uniquely potent threat to our democracy.

How potent?

Let me put it this way: If the GOP stranglehold over state legislatures in key swing states is not broken in the 2022 election, then the next Democratic presidential nominee probably shouldn’t bother spending a dime in states like Arizona or Michigan in 2024. The die will already have been cast.

Donald Trump’s 2020 attempted coup gave the right wing this playbook for stealing the next presidential election. Desperate to hold onto power, they devised a constitutional theory that state legislatures can choose presidential electors any way they want, without any oversight, even after Election Day. The U.S. Supreme Court’s most conservative members signaled their support for this “plenary” power for state legislatures in presidential elections (based on the decision that gave Bush the presidency in 2000).

The Trump team likely knew that the dozens of lawsuits, the press conferences and the calls to local officials would be fruitless. But that didn’t matter. Their real focus was on state legislatures. From the outside, the Trump team’s strategy appeared flailing and erratic, but much of this chaos was intentional. The goal was always to open the door for Republican-led state legislatures to intervene and “settle” the matter by installing new electors who would deliver Trump the presidency.

*snip*

[everyonematters]

1. If the legislatures try to steal elections, then the Democrats will take them to court

on violating the right to vote.

[PortTack]

2. The bush v gore decision has never been held up as a precedent even with this very

Conservative court.

The electoral count act clearly states the parties appoint electors not legislators. Most legislators this past election were pretty clear they would not go against the will of the ppl and overturn the popular vote- millions of votes, which is what is being talked about here.

The first link here talks about the electoral college act. The second link is a SCOTUS ruling from 7/2020 about how electors are selected

https://verdict.justia.com/2020/09/30/no-republicans-cannot-throw-the-presidential-election-into-the-house-so-that-trump-wins

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/07/14/supreme-courts-faithless-electors-decision-validates-case-for-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/

I really like democracydocket, but this seems over the top. If this is the case then why has democracydocket and others- ACLU, NAACP and the DOJ filed law suits to change these illegal and unconstitutional laws?

[TheRealNorth]

3. But I think the point is that the Legislators could refuse to certify the electors....

of the winning candidate. Then, if No candidate reaches 270 EV's on Jan 6th, then the house will select the president and vice president with each state getting a single vote and the winner of the state's vote based upon the vote of all its Representatives. So, it essentially rewards gerrymandering and gives even more power to less populous states. The District of Columbia gets no vote in this.

I think this was the more realistic goal of the Republicans last year (I think the bogus electors was just trying to provide evidence of a disputed result).

[PortTack]

4. Here's another link that discusses this

https://www.justsecurity.org/73274/no-state-legislatures-cannot-overrule-the-popular-vote/

[TheRealNorth]

5. But this was written with regards to the 2020 election.

And since then, Red States have passed laws empowering the legislature when it comes to the manner of selecting electors.

[PortTack]

6. Yes, but it's law and the constitution regardless of the year

Here’s why it won’t work.
Blue held state legislators could do the same, refusing to certify the vote for newly elected gqp congress ppl and senators. See where I'm going?

Case in point: a special election was held this past year for a state senate opening in PA. The dem won and the they refused to seat him. He went to court, he clearly won the popular vote..end of story, he was seated.

As mentioned in the electoral count act, if a state refuses to to certify a vote count the state loses it’s right to have their electoral votes counted. That’s why states scramble at the end to certify the vote and turn it in as there is a deadline. The total to then win is reduced from 270 by however many electoral votes the state holds.

As far as being thrown to the states, one state one vote, that only happens if there’s a tie.

[TheRealNorth]

7. But I think in larger sense, it doesn't matter if the state sends any electors....

As long as the Democratic candidate doesn't have 270 electors (and presuming the Republican doesn't have 270 or more either), the election then gets thrown into the House, where the Republicans have the advantage because if you go state-by-state, they have a majority of Representatives in plurality of states.

In the PA case you mentioned, it depends on who has the authority. Plus, you could always get a conservative judge that would side with the Republicans.

[PortTack]

8. The only time an election is thrown to the house is if there's a tie

If a state refuses to certify their votes by the required deadline they lose the right to have their votes count. Those votes are then subtracted from the 270 total
Say Illinois with 19 votes refuses to certify their vote count, the new total to win then becomes 251.

The laws are very clear how federal congress ppl are elected and that is by popular vote totals. No wiggle room what so ever- state level ppl are the same. They cannot overrule the popular vote. Could they have, they would have done it by now! So in spite of a red legislature in PA they had no choice but to seat him.