ujm

Whatever fraud and/or irregularities are uncovered before the electoral college votes, will only represent a small portion of the actual fraud and irregularities in the voting and counting. In such a constrained and short time frame between election day and the vote certification deadline, it’ll be impossible to weed out all the fraud.

CTL: You misconstrued Ben Levi’s comment. He said that IF the courts rules in Trump’s favor and as a result the election is called for Trump, that effectively means the court rulings demonstrates that the networks called it wrong based on invalid ballots counted prior to final vote certification.

Charlie: Constitutionally, any state legislature can replace the electors without the governor. (And these legislators are from red districts whose constituents will appreciate and reward them.) And it can only be challenged in the joint session of Congress, presided over by Vice President Michael Pence. Pence can choose to only recognize and present to the joint session the certificate from the legislature, which has constitutional authority.

London bookies are still accepting, and receiving, bets on who will win and be president. As of today Trump has a 10% betting odds. (Which, funnily enough, is the same odds that Nate Silver from the famous 538 polling firm gave him on November 2, the night before the election. And it is a better odd than Trump was given before the 2016 election.)

The premise of the OP is correct. If Trump pulls through and wins (whether through recounts, litigation, state legislatures or in Congress), it is a virtual certainty that BLM, Democrats, Antifa and other far-leftists will riot, loot and burn.

It is notable that rioting and looting is a hallmark of the Democrat-left while virtually unheard of in the right.

All that said, the president is well-equipped to put down any insurrection by nationalizing the National Guard or by sending the Marines into the cities (as was done by the president in in Los Angeles during the 1990 riots.)

ENS: If you think Biden supporters and/or blue states will declare civil war secession if in a turn of events Trump wins a majority of the electoral college constitutionally, even if through an untraditional chain of legal events, then rest assured that the President, like President Lincoln before him, is well equipped to put down the insurrection.

“The Supreme Court has no role here.”

Exactly, correct.

“It is the *Governor* who certifies the electors, not the legislature.”

Normally by LAW, correct. But the legislature has the CONSTITUTIONAL right to assert the power of declaring who the state electors are. And constitutional law overrides statutory law.

“It takes separate votes of BOTH houses of Congress to reject the Governor’s certification.”

Correct, but irrelevant. Because that’s only applicable if the presiding officer of the joint session of Congress, which is VP Pence, on January 6 presents the governor’s certification. Then it would take both houses to override it. But if Congress receives more than one certification from a state, VP Pence will only recognize the constitutional certification from the legislature to present to Congress while ignoring and not recognizing the second certification from the governor, since the legislature has constitutional priority for this purpose.

“The Supreme Court, even with 3 Trump justices, will quickly rule that such an action is illegal.”

The Supreme Court has no role in reviewing the January 6 electoral count in Congress. The constitution assigns that role exclusively to Congress. Another coequal branch of the government (either the executive or judiciary) are not part of this constitutional process.

On January 6 Congress will declare the final vote tally of the electoral college. Following that the issue is finalized and settled. Vice President Pence, as President of the US Senate and constitutionally the presiding officer of the joint session session, is the final arbiter with his declaration.

se2015: If fraud is found and the courts nevertheless cannot rectify it, the legislatures have standing to act.

The federal Constitution takes precedence over state laws. This is a fundamental legal principle. Given that the United States Constitution give direct unambiguous authority to the state legislatures alone, state laws purporting to limit that constitutional right are effectively void. And since once the legislature acts only Congress can challenge it, the courts have no standing or ability to interfere with the official act of a coequal branch of government, the legislative branch, as a matter of separation of powers.

In addition to the Pennsylvania Legislature, as mentioned earlier, the Michigan Legislature is also holding a rare emergency session to investigate election irregularities. All this is the beginning of the various state legislatures leading up to taking action to directly appoint electors supporting Trump.

ENS:

1. This constitutional procedure is not illegal. It is a process outlined directly in the Constitution of the United States.

2. The joint session of Congress counting the electoral college on January 6 is presided over, as directed in the Constitution, by the President of the US Senate. The President of the US Senate is a gentleman by the name of Michael Pence. The presiding officer V.P. Pence has the authority to decide which certificates of electoral college received is recognized and announced by him in the joint session. If he doesn’t present a certificate there’s nothing to challenge.

3. The Presidential Succession Act only is relevant if no one received a majority of the electoral college. If Vice President Pence announces, per the electoral college certificates received from the state legislatures, that President Trump received a majority of the electoral college, that is the end of the matter. President Trump is reelected.

Furthermore, even IF the Presidential Succession Act had come into play, there’s a legal dispute whether the Speaker can become Acting President, since the Constitution specifies only an “Officer” of the government can assume the powers of the presidency. In legal terms an Officer is only a member of the Executive Branch. Pelosi is only a member of the legislative branch, thus arguably unqualified. So how is this legal ambiguity resolved, you ask? The Justice Department can issue a legal opinion stating the three Speaker isn’t qualified. It is binding. And the head of the Department of Justice is a gentleman by the name of William Barr.

Amil: You’re simply not following this discussion. It is going over your head. I refer you to Article 2, Section 1, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution. This has nothing to do with districts. Any state legislature can decide how to assign their state electoral college. There’s nothing to litigate. They can change the process at any time, to anything they decide.

Amil: You completely missed the point. Any state legislature has the constitutional authority to directly award their state electoral votes, even now after the election, to any candidate of their choosing.