A 2020 election query for you lawyers on the board
Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 11:43 am
Ok. I've been looking at the "Legal Provisions Relevant to the Electoral College Process" page at https://www.archives.gov/electoral-college/provisions.
Can you lawyers on the board explain to me how the actual language involved allows for what the Republicans are trying to do now?
My understanding is that the 12th Amendment is what governs the counting constitutionally. Linguistically, I don't see any discretion there. What I see is that Congress just counts the certified results sent by the States. The only way Congress becomes involved beyond that is if nobody gets a majority.
Also I am looking at Chapter 1 of Title 3, United States Code (62 Stat. 672, as amended) Section 15 on counting the votes. I don't see any allowance for rejecting any of the certified results that have been submitted. There is a provision for objecting, but it says "no electoral vote or votes from any State which shall have been regularly given by electors whose appointment has been lawfully certified to according to section 6 of this title from which but one return has been received shall be rejected, but the two Houses concurrently may reject the vote or votes when they agree that such vote or votes have not been so regularly given by electors whose appointment has been so certified."
I won't quote section 6 but you can look at it. Theoretically I can see maybe trying to argue that electors weren't selected according to the laws of states but there have been a bunch of court cases trying to argue that results shouldn't be certified due to that and they failed.
I thought Republicans were supposed to believe in doing what the law actually says. What the hell is going on?
Can you lawyers on the board explain to me how the actual language involved allows for what the Republicans are trying to do now?
My understanding is that the 12th Amendment is what governs the counting constitutionally. Linguistically, I don't see any discretion there. What I see is that Congress just counts the certified results sent by the States. The only way Congress becomes involved beyond that is if nobody gets a majority.
Also I am looking at Chapter 1 of Title 3, United States Code (62 Stat. 672, as amended) Section 15 on counting the votes. I don't see any allowance for rejecting any of the certified results that have been submitted. There is a provision for objecting, but it says "no electoral vote or votes from any State which shall have been regularly given by electors whose appointment has been lawfully certified to according to section 6 of this title from which but one return has been received shall be rejected, but the two Houses concurrently may reject the vote or votes when they agree that such vote or votes have not been so regularly given by electors whose appointment has been so certified."
I won't quote section 6 but you can look at it. Theoretically I can see maybe trying to argue that electors weren't selected according to the laws of states but there have been a bunch of court cases trying to argue that results shouldn't be certified due to that and they failed.
I thought Republicans were supposed to believe in doing what the law actually says. What the hell is going on?
