Monday, August 24, 2020

Were You Expecting It To?


I mean, I've seen enough fundraising e-mails to recognize this appeal:

But no, this doesn't really mean anything:

Of course, it's the internet, it's full of idiocy:

I can vote; or I can demand a written ballot.  I can't do both.

I also refuse to yield to the GOP position that all votes not tallied by midnight PDT on November 3, 2020, are ipso facto invalid.  Even the Supreme Court didn't say that in Bush v. Gore.  The process is governed, broadly, by the 12th Amendment, the 20th Amendment, and the 23rd Amendment, to the Constitution.  The relevant dates are:

Nov. 3, 2020: Election Day, when voters in each state will select their presidential electors. The names of electors are not on the ballot in most states. Rather, when a voter casts a vote for a presidential candidate, s/he is also casting a vote for the electors already selected by the party of that candidate. If a majority of voters in a state vote for the Republican candidate for president, the Republican slate of electors is elected. If a majority vote for the Democratic candidate, the Democratic slate of electors is chosen.

Dec. 8, 2020: Deadline for Resolving Election Disputes. All state recounts and court contests over presidential election results must be completed by this date.

Dec. 14, 2020: Meeting of the Electors. The electors meet in each state and cast their ballots for president and vice president. Each elector votes on his or her own ballot and signs it. The ballots are immediately transmitted to various people: one copy goes to the president of the U.S. Senate (who is also the vice president of the United States); this is the copy that will be officially counted later. Other copies go to the state's secretary of state, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the presiding judge in the district where the electors meet (this serves as a backup copy that would replace the official copy sent to the president of the Senate if it is lost or destroyed).

Dec. 23, 2020: Deadline for Receipt of Ballots. The electors' ballots from all states must be received by the president of the Senate by this date. There is no penalty for missing this deadline.

Jan. 6, 2021: Counting of the Electoral Ballots. The U.S. Congress meets in joint session to count the electoral votes.

Jan. 20, 2021: Inauguration Day.  The president-elect becomes the president of the United States.
Now pay attention, there'll be a quiz.

States control the election and the counting of ballots.  But December 8, 2020, is a hard deadline (Bush v Gore resulted in a stay against Florida's recount on December 9, 2000.  I'm assuming that was the deadline for resolving election disputes, and the basis for the per curiam order in that case.  Or at least partly so.).  So whatever screaming and yelling (and suing) Trump does, it comes to an end on December 8.  He can't delay vote counts while he demands fraud be corrected in his favor.  He can't delay the counting of ballots on January 6.  And he can't put off no longer being President on January 20, 2021, if he isn't the victor of the electoral votes counted two weeks earlier.

There's really not a lot he can do here, despite his pronouncements and his declarations and his tweets.  Gym Jordan can demand the AP projection be the official vote count as of midnight PDT (or perhaps he'd prefer CDT?), but he can't change the laws of any state to force them to count votes only by that deadline.  He can try, but the only real deadline is December 8, 2020.  Trump can declare victory until the cows come home.  But the vote count, whenever it is reached before that date, will decide who the electors are, and they will decide who the POTUS is.

I mean, honestly, nobody thinks this means anything:

But his claims about the vote are somehow law?

Get real.
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