Monday, August 19, 2024

Speaking of Credulous

Yeah, no surprise there. Well, they tried to. The courts will have the last word on that. I've yet to see any lawyers sound these alarms of terror and despair.

Election boards across the country now include Republican officials who have not only propounded Mr. Trump's lies about the last presidential election being 'stolen,' they have tested how far they can go in denying the certification of the vote," Maddow explains. "Republicans tried this ploy more than two dozen times in at least eight states since 2020."

Maddow fears "legal challenges" and "certification refusals" from MAGA Republicans if Harris wins key battleground states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Michigan.

"The point of these certification refusals may not be to falsify or flip a result, but simply to prevent the emergence of one," Maddow warns. "If one or more states fail to produce official results, blocking any candidate from reaching 270 electoral votes, the 12th Amendment prescribes Gerald L.K. Smith's dream scenario: a vote in the newly elected House of Representatives to determine the presidency."

This "nightmare scenario" depends upon either the complete absence of state and federal courts, or the complete abdication of their role in settling electoral challenges.  The Harris-Walz campaign already has a large staff of lawyers not only standing by, but actively working on electoral challenges as they arise, or where they are expected to.  Which includes the key battleground states mentioned by Ms. Maddow (who is a sharp person, but not a lawyer).  The role of these election boards is ministerial, not administrative or, certainly, legislative.  They have to follow the law, both state and federal, which is fairly uniform across the country even at the state level.  MAGA Republicans may hope to block certification and create a 12th Amendment crisis on January 6, 2025, but the courts will be asked to resolve all such efforts and to mandate the election boards to do their jobs; or, if they refuse, simply do the job for them.  Legally illiterate election board members may think they are as clever as the so-called "Constitutional Sheriffs" and, legally, they are.  Which is to say: not at all.

Frankly, this is the equivalent of the lone hero taking on an entire army and prevailing by stealth and the damned good fortune never to get shot, despite the hail of bullets aimed at him.  It's an impossible scenario in real life, in other words, where there are plenty of systems to ensure the votes cast are properly certified, and where a handful of cranks and MAGAts cannot hope to stymie the electoral decisions of a nation.

Besides:

Maddow continues, "Each state delegation would get one vote; today, Republicans control 26 state delegations; Democrats control 22; and two are evenly divided…. No one should be surprised when certification refusals happen or when they are then exploited to try to maximize chaos and upset."

That count is true today.  But it may not be true in 2025. 

I really don't understand the appeal of trying to predict a scarier future than Donald Trump regularly forecasts.  Especially if it's cast as inevitable (it isn't, but it's presented that way), it seems as anti-democratic (by suppressing participation. I mean, what's the point if four states are going to queer the vote for all of us?) as anything MAGA thinks it can (but really can't) do.  Why are we bent on helping them?

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1 comment:

  1. The Thought Criminal7:47 AM

    I wouldn't place a large bet on the Supreme Court upholding the express will of the largest majority of voters, not the Roberts Court, not in 2024 or 2025 nor on many of the lower courts, especially in states controlled by white supremacy. I heard a lot of lawyers say that it was impossible that the Supreme Court was going to side with the extreme "presidential immunity" that was so mistakenly judged as being finally argued by the three judge panel that rejected Trump's lawyers arguments that he could kill someone with impunity. Especially if it looks like Democrats might have a majority in Congress as well as the presidency since one of their most urgent jobs will be court reform. Roberts and his gang of six will do anything they can, legitimate or illegitimate to prevent that and under the deeply flawed Constitution, they have the power to say what is legitimate because there is no check on them. I hope you're right but I wouldn't bet on it.

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