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   M.S. Bellows, Jr. (msbellows@c.im)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Aug-2024 02:05:17 JST M.S. Bellows, Jr.

   1/ Sometimes I forget that other people didn't take a full year of Constitutional law in undergrad and then another year in law school.

   So I'm putting this out there for people who don't understand Trump's game plan for "winning" this election. Here's how the President is chosen, from the 12th Amendment to the Constitution:

   "The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, IF such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; AND IF NO PERSON HAVE SUCH MAJORITY, THEN... THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SHALL CHOOSE... THE PRESIDENT... , EACH STATE HAVING ONE VOTE.

   • Embed this notice
     SoGeneris for Harris/Walz (sogeneris@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 07-Sep-2024 08:49:24 JST SoGeneris for Harris/Walz

     in reply to

     • King Kaufman

     @msbellows Elie Mystal talks about the inequity of the Senate structure in favoring sparsely populated states … but imagine one representative from Wyoming being equal in the choice to the entire state of California with what, 100+ times the population? That is breathtakingly horrible.

     EDIT: @kingkaufman points out my rough math is off, and California has only 67 times the population of Wyoming. Which, still.

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     SoGeneris for Harris/Walz (sogeneris@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 07-Sep-2024 08:49:25 JST SoGeneris for Harris/Walz

     in reply to

     @msbellows I see reference to “en bloc” voting, but I can’t find anything that says how a delegation would reach a conclusion if it were, say, split down the middle. Unanimity? Simple majority? Whatever everyone agrees to in the moment? And do state laws address this as they do in many places for faithless voters?

     The potential for chaos is so huge. So many attack vectors, as they say.

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     SoGeneris for Harris/Walz (sogeneris@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 07-Sep-2024 08:49:25 JST SoGeneris for Harris/Walz

     in reply to

     @msbellows Every rock you pick up has some new weirdness under it.

     “All of California's members vote on how California's one vote will be cast. All of Texas’ members vote on how Texas’ one vote will be cast. Any state with an even number of members, if they are tied, that state's vote doesn't get cast. Delaware's one representative casts Delaware's vote. Wyoming's one member casts Wyoming's vote.”

     https://www.quora.com/Can-a-tie-in-the-Electoral-College-be-resolved-by-Congress-What-happens-if-Congress-is-unable-to-break-the-tie

     Bill repeated this.
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     SoGeneris for Harris/Walz (sogeneris@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 07-Sep-2024 08:49:26 JST SoGeneris for Harris/Walz

     in reply to

     @msbellows What is the process by which a state’s delegation would determine what one vote it would cast? I presume that isn’t spelled out by the constitution. Is there any law that determines it?

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     M.S. Bellows, Jr. (msbellows@c.im)'s status on Saturday, 07-Sep-2024 08:49:26 JST M.S. Bellows, Jr.

     in reply to

     • SoGeneris for Harris/Walz

     @SoGeneris The delegation consists of that state's House members. I honestly don't know what would happen if they tied, and I hope I'm never forced to find out. :-)

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     M.S. Bellows, Jr. (msbellows@c.im)'s status on Saturday, 07-Sep-2024 08:49:27 JST M.S. Bellows, Jr.

     in reply to

     2/ Get it? If local or state elections officials or Trump-friendly judges refuse to certify the election result, so that neither Trump nor Harris has a majority, then the voters are IGNORED and every state's House delegation gets ONE VOTE.

     California (pop. 39 million) gets one vote. And Alaska (pop 733,000) gets one vote.

     New York (pop. 19 million) gets one vote. And North Dakota (pop. 784,000) gets one vote. ...