I’ve been making myself a little crazy this week imagining Merrick Garland-style ways the Trump administration could procedurally f*** with the electoral vote if it doesn’t go their way.
From what I can tell, the VP has to formally certify the EV in his role as President Of The Senate. Much like there’s nothing that specifically says the Senate Majority Leader has to hold hearings on a judicial nominee, there doesn’t seem to be anything that specifically obligates the VP to certify the election results if he chooses not to. No certification, no winner. No winner, the election goes to the House.
Of course there could also be a tie, which is not an unreasonable scenario this year. If the 2016 map holds but we retake PA and MI and ME-2 but not WI, we get 269-269. That seems to me not a wholly unrealistic possibility.
Or the Democrat wins but there commences an intimidation campaign to convince electors to abstain, as the Virginia electors did in 1836 on the VP ticket, sending that election to the Senate. Or a third party candidate wins Utah or something out of the blue. In any case, I think it is more likely than usual that this next presidential election could be decided in the House either through tie or trickery and we need to be ready.
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The House doesn’t vote via representatives, they vote via state delegation. Whichever candidate gets a majority vote in 26 states wins. Right now Republicans hold 26 states. Dems have 22 and 2 are tied - good ole’ MI and PA!
If we can flip or deadlock one more state, neither side will have 26 and Trump cannot use the House as a backup plan if he loses the EC. Right now Wisconsin is a 4-3 Republican majority with 1 vacancy due to Republican Sean Duffy’s resignation. That vacancy is going to be filled by a special election on May 12. Tricia Zunker is the Dem candidate and she’s great! Perhaps show her some support if you can.
If the presidential election were to go to the House, it is the newly elected one in November that would be voting and so things may change. But if they were to hold as they are, winning that 4th Wisconsin seat would deadlock the state and leave the Republicans with only 25, not enough to elect a president. We’d have to hold the seat in November, but I’d rather be playing defense than offense.
Florida is currently 14R-13D so if we could flip one district there we’d do the same. But outside of Florida and Wisconsin, our chances for knocking off a Republican state are slim.
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But let’s say we do it. Let’s say we win/deadlock one more state. If the election goes to the House, nobody gets 26 and so nobody gets elected. (This is totally a storyline on “Veep”, a scarily prescient show.) In that case the Senate election for VP essentially becomes the Presidential election, since without a POTUS the VP assumes the role.
Now imagine that after November the Senate is 50/50. Who’s the tiebreaker? Yep. Mike Pence.
Here’s a wild ridiculous coocoopants nutso notion. If it does turn out that the House loses its 26th delegation but the Senate retains its majority or ties, watch Mike Pence go full Iago and reveal all that he knows about all the election fraud and foreign interference, that the results can’t be trusted, and as a man of faith and a Christian who believes in truth and honor he cannot in good conscience validate a blatant fraud, one he totally knew nothing about until it was just recently brought to his attention.
Which throws the election to the House, which deadlocks. Which throws it to the Senate, which ties. The tie of which is broken by the 46th President Of The United States, Michael Richard Pence.
The Senate and the House delegations, folks. Without those, they can’t do this and this all becomes the rantings of a conspiracy lunatic who needs a nap. But don’t say they won’t. If I, somebody who does not work anywhere near politics, have thought of this, they definitely have and are probably way smarter than me about this stuff anyway.
WI House!
AZ Senate!
KY Senate!
FL House!
I can’t scream it any louder! We need to fortify the battlements!
And anything you could chip in for Tricia Zunker could have unexpectedly historic consequences.