The Law is Clear: If An Election is Stolen, State Legislatures Can Restore The Will of The People
Article publisher:
Revolver
Article date:
6 December 2020
Article category:
National News
Medium
Article Body:
President Trump must continue his campaign. But the president must not act alone. State-level Republicans must rally behind him and conduct a full audit of the election results. If enough evidence of fraud is found, these state-level Republicans must be prepared to assemble state legislators in emergency sessions to choose slates of pro-Trump electors. Such an action is not illegal. In fact, in the face of glaring illegality, it is both a constitutional and moral duty....
Having state lawmakers choose electors is not a new concept. Federal law already gives legislatures the exact power to do this....
The actual Electoral College election is governed by the Electoral Count Act, an 1887 law amended in 1948. Among other things, this law sets the exact day that the Electoral College meets: ... On that day (December 14 in 2020) the chosen electors will assemble in each state and formally cast their votes.
This day is a hard deadline, fixed by federal law. States must have their electors chosen by then. In fact, the Electoral Count Act explicitly accounts for what to do if a disputed election or other problem means electors cannot be chosen by voters:
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. [Legal Information Institute]
In other words, federal law explicitly empowers state legislators to decide how a state’s electoral votes should be awarded, even after election day, if that election “failed to make a choice.” Certainly, such a “failure” would include a fraud-ridden election whose outcome cannot be trusted....
It’s a precedent the Supreme Court has endorsed relatively recently. In 2000’s Bush v. Gore ruling, a Court majority affirmed that:
…the State legislature’s power to select the manner for appointing electors is plenary; it may, if it so chooses, select the electors itself. … The State, of course, after granting the franchise in the special context of Article II, can take back the power to appoint electors. See id., at 35 (“[T]here is no doubt of the right of the legislature to resume the power at any time, for it can neither be taken away nor abdicated”) [Legal Information Institute]...