I Blame "The Atlantic"

Giuliani acknowledging the effort to sway state legislatures to hand Trump the election has failed. https://t.co/1zdkebfTar

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 4, 2020

Well, and crackpottery. I blame crackpottery, too. But in the case of that Atlantic article, I'm saying the same thing, just twice.

Let's just clear this the fuck up, shall we?

If any State shall have provided, by laws enacted prior to the day fixed for the appointment of the electors, for its final determination of any controversy or contest concerning the appointment of all or any of the electors of such State, by judicial or other methods or procedures, and such determination shall have been made at least six days before the time fixed for the meeting of the electors, such determination made pursuant to such law so existing on said day, and made at least six days prior to said time of meeting of the electors, shall be conclusive, and shall govern in the counting of the electoral votes as provided in the Constitution, and as hereinafter regulated, so far as the ascertainment of the electors appointed by such State is concerned.

That's section 5 of the Electoral Count Act of 1887.  Let's move on to section 6:

It shall be the duty of the executive of each State, as soon as practicable after the conclusion of the appointment of the electors in such State by the final ascertainment, under and in pursuance of the laws of such State providing for such ascertainment, to communicate by registered mail under the seal of the State to the Archivist of the United States a certificate of such ascertainment of the electors appointed, setting forth the names of such electors and the canvass or other ascertainment under the laws of such State of the number of votes given or cast for each person for whose appointment any and all votes have been given or cast; and it shall also thereupon be the duty of the executive of each State to deliver to the electors of such State, on or before the day on which they are required by section 7 of this title to meet, six duplicate-originals of the same certificate under the seal of the State; and if there shall have been any final determination in a State in the manner provided for by law of a controversy or contest concerning the appointment of all or any of the electors of such State, it shall be the duty of the executive of such State, as soon as practicable after such determination, to communicate under the seal of the State to the Archivist of the United States a certificate of such determination in form and manner as the same shall have been made; and the certificate or certificates so received by the Archivist of the United States shall be preserved by him for one year and shall be a part of the public records of his office and shall be open to public inspection; and the Archivist of the United States at the first meeting of Congress thereafter shall transmit to the two Houses of Congress copies in full of each and every such certificate so received at the National Archives and Records Administration.

And just to put all that in context:

The electors of President and Vice President shall be appointed, in each State, on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, in every fourth year succeeding every election of a President and Vice President.

And:

Whenever any State has held an election for the purpose of choosing electors, and has failed to make a choice on the day prescribed by law, the electors may be appointed on a subsequent day in such a manner as the legislature of such State may direct.

So, what that all means is that electors are appointed according to sec. 1 (on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November).  Election day, IOW.  The election is conducted by the states, who can accept absentee ballots or do an all-mail ballot or start early voting whensoever they please, so long as they are done by that deadline.  Then we get to section 5, which allows legislatures to pass laws determining how electors are decided, which is to say, how disputes over their selection will be handled.  But such laws must be enacted prior to Election Day, and all disputes must be resolved by, this year anyway, December 8 (six days before the electoral college meets on December 14, 2020).

Clear enough?

In other words, Federal law precludes what Giuliani is whinging about and what that STUPID Atlantic article said PA was gonna do to screw the voters blind.  They couldn't do it if they wanted to.  I know the Florida Legislature made noises about appointing Bush electors in 2000, but they never got to test their stupid theory in court, where even the Rehnquist court would have poured them out like water (and Florida is lucky the Supremes stepped in.  Had they pulled that stunt Florida's electoral votes would have been void and Gore would have won the election.).

Section 2 (the last one just above) does not give the States the power to re-write the election outcome.  A choice was made by every state in the country.  That section is a failsafe for a very different situation than exists in any state's electoral outcome in 2020.

And notice section 6, which makes certification of the slate of electors the duty of the executive, not the legislature.   The legislature gets its bite at the apple before Election Day; after that, the executive has a basically pro forma duty which can't be deliberated by or interfered with by, the legislature.

Giuliani is a flaming Nazi gasbag.

I am so SICK of the ignorance being spewed about this situation.  Especially since there isn't one.  Trump lost.  Period.  End of discussion.

Six weeks from now Giuliani will have all the importance of used wrapping paper.  And anything anybody ever said in praise of him will be regarded as madness.