GOP's Plan B: spoiling the election

[Winehole23]

Republicans have a backup plan if Trump loses again: fact-free allegations (e.g.,"millions of illegal alien voters'), bogus election challenges, trying to throw out state elections and send them to state legislatures, slowing things down so much that state elections fail and deny Harris an electoral majority, which could end up with the US Congress voting for president. And of course, stoking political violence (like last time),

We've already seen a number of late cycle voter purges and last minute election changes of election rules. Last week Lindsay Graham lobbied Nebraska to change their Electoral College apportionment. The howls of outrage and "RIGGING!" would be so keen if the roles were reversed.

Republicans are just getting started with their election shenanigans, here's one more example:



When Max Himsl opened his electronic ballot on Friday, he was dismayed to see a candidate missing from the list of options. Voting absentee electronically while living abroad, Himsl saw that under the options for president, only Republican Donald Trump and Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were listed. Missing was Democrat Kamala Harris.https://dailyinterlake.com/news/2024/sep/20/ballot-error-shuts-down-montana-online-absentee-voting-system/

[Winehole23]

In normal democracies, the winner of the popular vote wins

[Winehole23]

Hypertechnical voter registration and voter ID rules are mainstays of vote suppression. Passing the SAVE Act was to be a sine qua non of of passing a CR to keep the government open last week.


The SAVE Act (https://substack.com/redirect/76d225e4-0566-47b0-8f41-57dffa3d53ac?j=eyJ1IjoiYnk0bCJ9.W8f-7mvx9-S-D38m7fP60BpmVa1OMjxs_l7gj9pW2to) is a proposed federal law, so, first off, it would put a future president (say, Trump) in charge of enforcing it, taking that power away from the states. Millions of voter registrations in any states the president decides are problematic could be removed until those voters “cure” their registrations, and state authorities would have no say in it.


And what will the law require citizens who want to vote do? Lacking a passport or other proof of citizenship with their married names, they must produce both a birth certificate (with the seal of the state where it was issued; no copies allowed) and a current form of identification—both with the exact same name on them. That could instantly disqualify about 90 percent of all married women without passports or other proof that matches their birth certificates or proof of a legal name change.

https://newrepublic.com/article/186160/republican-war-women-extends-voting-rights

[Winehole23]

apparently the Montana SOS has a track record of ratfucking Democrats

1837722394368078142

https://x.com/MamaSissieSays/status/1837722394368078142 (https://x.com/MamaSissieSays/status/1837722394368078142https://x.com/MamaSissieSays/status/1837722394368078142)

[benefactor]

I'm already mentally preparing for it. It's going to be a shitshow

[Trainwreck2100]

I'm already mentally preparing for it. It's going to be a shitshow

no amount of mental preparation can prepare you for what they're going to do

[Ef-man]

I am hoping Biden will, knowing he has presidential immunity, exercise his official powers as president to put a stop to Yam Tits’ fuckery, fast.

[Winehole23]

I am hoping Biden will, knowing he has presidential immunity, exercise his official powers as president to put a stop to Yam Tits’ fuckery, fast.like how?

[Ef-man]

like how?

Biggest one off the top of my head: give DOJ leadership/investigators pardons (in advance) for any actions associated with an aggressive investigation of the insurrectionists.

[Winehole23]

Biggest one off the top of my head: give DOJ leadership/investigators pardons (in advance) for any actions associated with an aggressive investigation of the insurrectionists.pardons for what, exactly? not sure I see your point.

[Spurs Homer]

like how?

like, immediately ordering worthless merrick to jail trump and his accomplices…

installing extra scotus judges to balance the court, and make trump appeal his cases from prison even if appeals take years

ordering the transfer of power to resume with the doj acting as temp govt until swear in ceremony

new scotus of 13 justices can take their time to decide cases while kamala runs govt

[Winehole23]

like, immediately ordering worthless merrick to jail trump and his accomplices…

installing extra scotus judges to balance the court, and make trump appeal his cases from prison even if appeals take years

ordering the transfer of power to resume with the doj acting as temp govt until swear in ceremony

new scotus of 13 justices can take their time to decide cases while kamala runs govtthis is all bonkers

[Spurs Homer]

this is all bonkers

of course it is...

just as bonkers as the GOP on their mission to steal another election...

the corrupt maga scotus is not credible so extreme measures are needed - or

goodbye democracy

[GAustex]

In normal democracies, the winner of the popular vote wins
You are free to move to normal democracy.

[Winehole23]

You are free to move to normal democracy.nah, I'm good

[Winehole23]

Lindsay Graham lobbying Nebraska to change Electoral College apportionment seems to have failed

MAGA threats on the life of state Sen. Mike McDonnell incoming...


“Elections should be an opportunity for all voters to be heard, no matter who they are, where they live, or what party they support,” McDonnell said in a statement. “I have taken time to listen carefully to Nebraskans and national leaders on both sides of the issue. After deep consideration, it is clear to me that right now, 43 days from Election Day, is not the moment to make this change.”

McDonnell said he told Gov. Jim Pillen his stance and suggested that the Legislature put winner-take-all to a vote of the people, as a proposed constitutional amendment, so people can decide the issue “once and for all.”https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/09/23/state-sen-mike-mcdonnell-deflates-gop-hopes-for-nebraska-winner-take-all-in-2024/

[Blake]

You are free to move to normal democracy.

Also free to want the one we have changed for the better

[baseline bum]

That's not the GOP's Plan A?

[Winehole23]

That's not the GOP's Plan A?wasn't really needed as a Plan A until Biden stepped down

[GAustex]

Also free to want the one we have changed for the better
Never gonna happen cuck

[Blake]

Never gonna happen cuck

Right, because too many retarded pieces of shit like you like living in worse conditions.

[Joseph Kony]

You are free to move to normal democracy.
hilarious coming from the party full of crybabies whining how bad the US is :lol

leave it if you dont like it tbh

[Spurminator]

hilarious coming from the party full of crybabies whining how bad the US is :lol

leave it if you dont like it tbh

In all likelihood this dude is also pro-Texas-secession. Patriotism is just a convenient fallback when it suits them, otherwise America is Sodom & Gomorrah.

[Winehole23]

so then, if MAGA crazies create chaos and violence at the polls, or just lie loudly about the election being unfair, the House of Representatives might have a pretext not to follow the Constitution

1838606075706175706

https://x.com/bartongellman/status/1838606075706175706

[Winehole23]

the amount of voter roll scrubbing in the home stretch in several states *feels* unusual, but this is just shenanigans

Nebraska Reverts to 19th-Century Voting Restrictions, Clouding Rights for Thousands | Bolts (boltsmag.org) (https://boltsmag.org/nebraska-voting-rights-restoration/)


On July 17, less than 48 hours before LB 20 was to take effect, Hilgers issued an advisory opinion (https://ago.nebraska.gov/sites/default/files/docs/opinions/AG%20Opinion%2024-004.pdf) stating that the new law was unconstitutional. But Hilgers didn’t stop there; he also declared unconstitutional a 2005 reform law ending lifetime disenfranchisement of anyone convicted of any felony; the 2005 law, Legislative Bill 53 (https://nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/99/PDF/Slip/LB53.pdf), allowed Nebraskans to vote two years after completing their sentences, a waiting period that LB 20 was set to eliminate.

In his opinion, Hilgers wrote that the state Board of Pardons—a three-member body composed of him, Evnen, and Republican Governor Jim Pillen—has sole discretion over whether to restore someone’s voting rights. Right after Hilgers issued his opinion, Evnen, the state’s top elections official, emailed county-level elections offices, ordering (https://foxnebraska.com/newsletter-daily/nebraska-officials-issuing-statements-about-a-bill-to-restore-voting-rights-for-felons) that, based on the AG’s stance, “we will not be implementing LB 20 and will no longer register individuals convicted of felonies.”

These moves by Hilgers and Evnen shocked Nebraskans who have spent years pushing for voting rights restoration. The new law had overwhelmingly passed the Republican-controlled legislature earlier this year, and Nebraskans with past felonies have been registering to vote, and actually voting, for almost 20 years with little issue or outcry.

[Winehole23]

1840723554083463218

https://x.com/AnthonyMKreis/status/1840723554083463218

[Winehole23]

Amazing how the noncitizen voter emergency evaporated *instantly* upon Republicans learning their voters would be most affected by the proposed remedy.

I could come up again post-election, if Trump loses again, as an alleged election irregularity.

"Illegals voted"


On Sept. 17, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, also a Republican, discovered that a glitch in Arizona’s driver’s license database caused nearly 100,000 registered voters not to meet the proof of citizenship requirements under the state’s recently revised election laws. Richer filed an emergency petition (https://www.azcourts.gov/Portals/201/2024_09_17_05269956-0-0000-EmergencyPetitionForSpecialAct.PDF) to the Arizona Supreme Court seeking to declare them ineligible to vote in state elections. But the next day, Toma and Peterson (https://www.azcourts.gov/Portals/201/2024_09_18_05270844-0-0000-UnopposedMotionToInterveneOfAr.PDFhttps://www.azcourts.gov/Portals/201/2024_09_18_05270844-0-0000-UnopposedMotionToInterveneOfAr.PDF)suddenly opposed the disenfranchisement (https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/issues/ben-toma/). That was after it became clear that mostly Republican voters would be affected.

Toma and Petersen (https://www.justice.gov/crt/media/1362821/dl)’s stance is unusual because for the past two years they have defended, and continue to defend (https://www.azleg.gov/press/house/56LEG/1R/230427HOUSELITIGATIONUPDATE.pdf), voter ID laws when the impact of invalidated voter registrations, while unknown, likely involves traditionally Democratic constituencies such as students and members of indigenous communities. For its part, the Arizona Republican Party submitted a legal brief opposing Richer’s efforts to enforce the ID laws and explicitly recognized that their constituents “would be disproportionately affected (https://www.azcourts.gov/Portals/201/2024_09_18_05270831-0-0000-BriefOfArizonaRepublicanPartyA.PDF)” by the mass disenfranchisement from the database glitch. The state Republicans’ sudden reversal caught little public attention outside the local press, with the Arizona Republic (https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/09/19/arizona-republicans-backtrack-proof-citizenship-voter-requirement/75283418007/) first running the story. Now, Just Security obtained the never-before-published data (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25182125-az-party-breakdown-numbers) showing the political affiliations of the registered voters impacted by the glitch.
https://i0.wp.com/www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/az-voters-piechart-2.png?resize=3840%2C2338&ssl=1
Surprise Reversal in Arizona GOP ‘Noncitizen’ Voting Litigation (justsecurity.org) (https://www.justsecurity.org/103415/arizona-gop-noncitizen-voting-reversal/)

[Winehole23]

on Sept. 17, Richer, the Maricopa County Recorder, told state’s highest court that a government database glitch may have disenfranchised Arizonans who got their licenses before October 1996. In an email attached to his lawsuit (https://www.azcourts.gov/Portals/201/2024_09_17_05269956-0-0000-EmergencyPetitionForSpecialAct.PDF), Richer even informed Arizona’s Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and Fontes: “I know that the vast majority of these voters are United States citizens who can provide documented proof of citizenship.”

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GY6O2MmWYAAz2VX?format=jpg&name=medium

[hater]

If Democrats use this plan B you bitches wont bat an eye. Amirite? :lol

[ChumpDumper]

If Democrats use this plan B you bitches wont bat an eye. Amirite? :lolTell us how Democrats use this plan B in your fever dream.

Be specific.

[Winehole23]

If Democrats use this plan B you bitches wont bat an eye. Amirite? :loldeciding elections on the basis of anything other than bona fide election returns is bonkers and facially anti-democratic. it's bad no matter who does it.

if you cry fraud, you better have evidence. in 2020, Trump had none and he knew it.

[Winehole23]

1841702276299178383

https://x.com/highbrow_nobrow/status/1841702276299178383

[Winehole23]

"my spidey-sense cancels your vote"


1842153943725424946https://x.com/DC_DeWitt/status/1842153943725424946

[Winehole23]

I never any heard any suitable explanation for this either: namely, Trumplandia challenging the rigged election only at top of the ticket in 2020. Kari Lake was an outlier.

https://www.masslive.com/resizer/ZH-YjSn_3DSs8RjaRJlKymGqzM4=/1280x0/smart/advancelocal-adapter-image-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/image.masslive.com/home/mass-media/width2048/img/breakingnews/photo/2017/11/10/steelejpg-b06e5d41457bcbc7.jpg


"But riddle me this, Republicans," Steele, who served as RNC chair from 2009 to 2011, continued. "How do you corrupt the top of the ticket without corrupting the rest of the ballot? Because that means a lot of your behinds shouldn't be in Congress (https://www.newsweek.com/topic/congress) right now and shouldn't be in the Senate (https://www.newsweek.com/topic/senate) because of that unfair, corrupt, rigged election."link (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/former-rnc-chair-says-he-s-fed-up-with-republicans/ar-AA1rKSbn)

[Winehole23]

real shit


1842657649197752667

1842659868433318061

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZrp6QkW0AUvuxv?format=jpg&name=900x900


legal pretext for post-election legal challenge: waiting too long to purge the voter rolls (there's a federal law that forbids it happening too close to an election, so that valid voters have time to cure their voter registration), then claiming that federal law is undermining election security and state sovereignty.

1844849215773508091https://x.com/srl/status/1844849215773508091

[Winehole23]

Republican contempt for adverse legal outcomes being what it is, the trope of public officials construing ministerial duties as discretionary is likely to recur.

1846170851843920041

https://x.com/marceelias/status/1846170851843920041

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZ7wEqwXwAAjFdZ?format=jpg&name=large

[Winehole23]

Gonna go ahead and prebunk this one.

There are a lot of reasons the number of registered voters in a state can be larger than the number of voting age citizens as determined by the US Census, starting with the ratfucked 2020 Census, which resulted in undercounts.


1847380620324086260

https://x.com/BarbByrum/status/1847380620324086260

[Winehole23]

Holding up an election because you're a sore loser with a bad faith objection to the process is rightly prosecuted as a crime.

1848684955414450189

https://x.com/carlquintanilla/status/1848684955414450189

[CosmicCowboy]

In normal democracies, the winner of the popular vote wins

We are a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy.

[benefactor]

We are a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy.
You misspelled oligarchy

[Winehole23]

We are a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy.But isn't a constitutional republic a kind of democracy, profe?

[Winehole23]

The Washoe County, NV peeps in the pic below thought the 2020 election was rigged.

It would be surprising not to see this sort of protest this come up again this year.

When Trump loses the popular election next month, the job of spoiling the election and lobbying the legislatures will begin in earnest.


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GawLfYwbUAA53Fb?format=jpg&name=900x900

[Winehole23]

Supposing Trump successfully lobbies compliant state legislatures to seat Trump electors post-election day, presumably that is a-ok and no problem in our old timey representative republic.

States overriding the popular vote would superficially appear to be consistent with the US Constitution.

What's the problem here?

[Winehole23]

Someone burned a ballot box in Washington

1850906729879630301https://x.com/KATUNews/status/1850906729879630301

[Winehole23]

political violence could screw up the election

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GbAPswHbQAA47HB?format=jpg&name=small

[Winehole23]

we're up two ballot drop box arsons in swing House districts and counting...

[Winehole23]

a possible assist to Trump by SCOTUS via the exotic independent state legislature theory, within days of the election


Roberts’s majority opinion in Moore, however, included a cryptic line creating an exception to the rule that state courts have the final word on questions of state law. “[S]tate courts,” Roberts wrote, “may not transgress the ordinary bounds of judicial review (https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-1271_3f14.pdf) such that they arrogate to themselves the power vested in state legislatures to regulate federal elections.” Moore, however, did not explain what, exactly, it means to “transgress the ordinary bounds of judicial review.”

As a practical matter, that means that Moore gave the US Supreme Court an unprecedented new power to overrule state election law decisions that at least five justices don’t like. It also means that Moore shifted a great deal of authority to the Republican Party — Republicans have a 6-3 majority on the US Supreme Court and Moore means that any five of these Republicans can reverse a state court decision that benefits Democrats.

The question in Genser is whether the Republican justices will use this self-given power, for the first time, to give Donald Trump an unfair advantage in Pennsylvania.The new Supreme Court case that could change the winner of the presidential election | Vox (https://www.vox.com/scotus/380170/supreme-court-pennsylvania-election-republican-genser)

[Joseph Kony]

1850754416141386113


1850754422575382660

[z0sa]

That little secret is one a lot of us didn't even realize, including myself, until fairly recently. It's one of the relatively few glaring issues with the Constitution. It's locked us into a 2 party system and it allows the House which will always be controlled by one of whichever 2 major parties are in power to decide elections outside the normal parameters of our "constitutional republic."

[Winehole23]

That little secret is one a lot of us didn't even realize, including myself, until fairly recently. It's one of the relatively few glaring issues with the Constitution. It's locked us into a 2 party system and it allows the House which will always be controlled by one of whichever 2 major parties are in power to decide elections outside the normal parameters of our "constitutional republic."Trump can win the presidency by spoiling the election, and it sure looks like that's what he's aiming for.

Enough bad faith legal challenges, chaos and violence could throw the election to state legislatures and the House of Representatives.

[Winehole23]

right wingers are already straight up torching ballots, hope that's not a trend

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GbAsYatWoAAd92I?format=jpg&name=900x900

[Winehole23]

rogue counties who refuse to count votes is gonna happen again


One of the many strategies that could be used to confuse and delay the results of the 2024 election is the refusal to certify elections, particularly at the county level. We have already seen this tried in places like Cochise County (https://www.npr.org/2022/12/01/1140086777/midterm-elections-cochise-county-arizona-ruling), Arizona in 2022 and Washoe County (https://nevadacurrent.com/2024/07/10/refusal-to-certify-washoe-county-election-results-meant-to-sow-distrust-advocates-warn/), Nevada in 2024, and similar efforts seem to be percolating now in counties across the nation. It failed in those places and elsewhere but may be tried again in November. Counting the votes is a ministerial duty (https://law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/MILLER-WILDER-FINAL-1.pdf) and not one that involves discretion by county election officials as we explained in the first essay in this series (https://www.brookings.edu/articles/counting-the-votes-in-2024-what-you-need-to-know-about-certification/). Nonetheless, the election subversion movement has seized on this strategy as a vehicle to attempt to sabotage results or confidence in them, to sow chaos or simply to vent spleen.


The counties that may try not to certify the 2024 election (https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-counties-that-may-try-not-to-certify-the-2024-election/?)

[Winehole23]

last minute voter purges halal now?

1851630146668617925

https://x.com/chrisgeidner/status/1851630146668617925

[TSA]

right wingers are already straight up torching ballots, hope that's not a trend

Free Gaza right wingers :lol

[Winehole23]

Free Gaza right wingers :lol"Investigators found a note"

Connect da dots

[Winehole23]

last minute voter purges halal now?

1851630146668617925

https://x.com/chrisgeidner/status/1851630146668617925this looks like Calvinball of the Calvinball -- SCOTUS is ignoring its own precedents and a clear federal law.

[TSA]

"Investigators found a note"

Connect da dots

"all three incendiary devices themselves had the message “Free Gaza” written on them." vs "winehole said right wingers must have done it"

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/29/us/ballot-box-fires-oregon-washington-gaza.html

[Winehole23]

"all three incendiary devices themselves had the message “Free Gaza” written on them." vs "winehole said right wingers must have done it"

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/29/us/ballot-box-fires-oregon-washington-gaza.htmlSeems likely to me. "Finding a note" isn't dispositive.

[TSA]

Seems likely to me. "Finding a note" isn't dispositive.

It seems likely to you that right wingers wrote Free Gaza on all three incendiary devices?

[Winehole23]

It seems likely to you that right wingers wrote Free Gaza on all three incendiary devices?
that's what I'd do if I were a right winger seeking to throw LE off the scent and maximize propaganda value

[TSA]

that's what I'd do if I were a right winger seeking to throw LE off the scent or maximize propaganda value

I didn't ask what you'd do if you were a right winger. I asked you if it seems likely to you that right wingers wrote Free Gaza on all three incendiary devices?

[Leetonidas]

TSA also believes people are eating geese in Ohio because some guy called 911 saying it therefore it must be true. Not hard to see why he believes leftists are torching ballot boxes and putting their signature on it :lol

[TSA]

TSA also believes people are eating geese in Ohio because some guy called 911 saying it therefore it must be true. Not hard to see why he believes leftists are torching ballot boxes and putting their signature on it :lol

Leetonidas also believes right wingers are torching ballot boxes in Oregon because some guy named winehole23 said that's what he'd do if he was a right winger therefore it must be true.

[TSA]

If you're going to create an evidence free conspiracy theory at least make it somewhat believable and go with pro-Israel people trying to frame pro-Palestine people.

[ChumpDumper]

If you're going to create an evidence free conspiracy theory at least make it somewhat believable and go with pro-Israel people trying to frame pro-Palestine people.

It was Laguna Beach Antifa.

[Ef-man]

It was Laguna Beach Antifa.

There was a “Q” drop on that so it must be true.

[Leetonidas]

Leetonidas also believes right wingers are torching ballot boxes in Oregon because some guy named winehole23 said that's what he'd do if he was a right winger therefore it must be true.

When did I say that? :lol I'm not the regular dudes you try to troll to get a rise out of them. You'll need to try a little harder bud

[TSA]

When did I say that? :lol I'm not the regular dudes you try to troll to get a rise out of them. You'll need to try a little harder bud

When did I say I believed leftists were torching ballot boxes and putting their signature on it?

[ChumpDumper]

When did I say leftists were torching ballot boxes and putting their signature on it?

The rodeo begins.

Do you think leftists or right wingers torched the ballot boxes in question?

[Leetonidas]

When did I say I believed leftists were torching ballot boxes and putting their signature on it?

Are you going to pretend you're not alluding to that with your comments above? You keep bringing up Free Gaza being on the devices as proof it wasn't a right winger. What else could you possibly be getting at :lol come on now

[TSA]

Are you going to pretend you're not alluding to that with your comments above? You keep bringing up Free Gaza being on the devices as proof it wasn't a right winger. What else could you possibly be getting at :lol come on now

I think the evidence points to it being a pro-Palestine person.

[ChumpDumper]

Anonymous arsonists are famously honest and forthcoming. It's their implicit code of conduct.

[Winehole23]

Trump and Johnson's possible secret plan: delay state certification past Dec 11th, at which point a partisan SCOTUS
can do the blocking for Trump.

In other words, legal and constitutional chicanery to bypass the voters.



I don’t think the Republican plan even requires them to get to a contingent election where the House chooses the president. I think the plan is to steal the Electoral College outright by getting states Trump loses to refuse to certify the results of their election. That’s because the Twelfth Amendment provides that the president is the person who wins the majority of the “whole number of Electors appointed.” That “whole number” is supposed to be 538. But one potential reading of the Amendment is that Trump doesn’t have to win 270 Electoral College votes, he just has to win a majority of however many electors show up. Trump’s goal, I believe, is to decrease the number of electors appointed until he wins.

This reading is untested. Nobody has yet tried to win an election with fewer than a majority of the Electoral College votes by decreasing the overall number of electors appointed after the election. But it’s an argument the Trump team could put forward, and it’s an argument Democratic lawyers and experts are preparing for.


The first step in such a process is to get Republicans in states Trump loses to contest the certification of their own elections. In 2020, Trump and his team illegally tried to get slates of alternate electors submitted in states where Republicans control the state legislatures. They could try that again, but for this scheme to work, they don’t even have to get “fake” electors submitted, they just have to convince Republican state legislatures or Republican governors not to submit their valid slates of electors before statutorily imposed deadlines. All slates of electors are supposed to be certified by December 11. Those electors are then supposed to vote and submit their results by December 25.

What this means is that Republicans just have to delay long enough to pass those deadlines. They don’t have to win, they just have to stall.


There are currently 27 states with Republican state legislatures, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. There are currently 26 Republican governors running states like Florida, Georgia, Nevada, and Virginia. If some of these people are able to delay certification past the deadline, the “whole number of Electors appointed” would be diminished, lowering the number of electors Trump would need to hold a majority.

In 2022 Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform Act. This is the only thing our government actually did to address the failed coup attempt launched by Trump after the 2020 election. Its most important provisions essentially provide a legal fast track for election-certification challenges, essentially providing a way to take these disputes out partisan legislatures and meandering state courts, and put them in front of federal judges.


That might sound comforting, but it shouldn’t. Putting any of these challenges in front of federal judges sets them on a collision course with the Republican-controlled Supreme Court. As John Roberts and his cabal of anti-democratic goons (and their wives) have repeatedly shown this year, the Supreme Court is willing to do Trump’s dirty work. In 2020, the Supreme Court rejected almost all of Trump’s various nonsensical claims to overturn that election. But I wouldn’t be so sure they’ll do so again, especially because this time the Trump people will not necessarily be asking the court to overturn the results of a state’s election, they’ll just be asking them to delay certification of those results, until some later date. In addition to ruling for the Trumpers outright, the court could simply delay hearing the case for as long as the delay is helpful for Trump. The Supreme Court can put its thumb on the scale for Trump simply by pretending to “stay out of it” and allowing the “process” to play itself out.

If enough states refuse to certify the results of the election and submit a slate of electors—with the Supreme Court’s blessing—the math is not actually hard for Trump. Let’s say Vice President Kamala Harris wins the bare majority of electoral college votes necessary, 270, but the Republican legislature in Wisconsin refuses to submit the state’s 10 electors by the deadline. In this scenario, the new total number of electors becomes 528, not 538—and Trump needs only 264 electoral votes to “win.” If you take Wisconsin and Nevada’s six electors out of the mix, Trump needs only 262 electoral votes to “win.” He’ll likely achieve those numbers without having to win one of the “blue wall” states.

It’s possible to play with the numbers until you find a “tie” scenario at which point the contingent election goes to the House of Representatives, but the far more likely situation is that Trump decreases the overall number of electoral votes available until he can claim a majority of the ones remaining.

And this is where Speaker Johnson becomes critical to the whole “secret” plan. In 2020, Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House. If states had tried to get cute and not submit their electors by the December 11 deadline, Pelosi would just have extended the deadline. But Speaker Johnson surely won’t. If electors are not submitted by December 11, he’ll likely declare the process “over” and say that the electors appointed by that date are the only ones allowed to vote for president.


Crucially, Johnson can do this even if Republicans lose the House and Johnson is removed from power. The new House isn’t sworn in until January 3. As the violent MAGA people in your family already know, January 6 is when the House certifies the results of the electoral college, but that is just a ceremonial day. By the time we get to January 6, the electors are supposed to have voted. December 11 is the deadline for appointing electors, December 25 is the deadline for voting. Mike Johnson will still be in charge on both of those days.

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/little-secret-trump-johnson-election/

[TSA]

Trump and Johnson's possible secret plan: delay state certification past Dec 11th, at which point a partisan SCOTUS
can do the blocking for Trump.

In other words, legal and constitutional chicanery to bypass the voters.


https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/little-secret-trump-johnson-election/

You're officially off the deep end.

[ChumpDumper]

You're officially off the deep end.What is Trump's stated "surprise" in the house, then?

Please explain.

[TSA]

What is Trump's stated "surprise" in the house, then?

Please explain.

Please explain Trump's "secret" that hasn't been revealed.

:lol You're tailspinning.

[ChumpDumper]

Please explain Trump's "secret" that hasn't been revealed.

:lol You're tailspinning.Trump said it was a secret with the House of Representatives in his Bund address. Not me.

What do you say he was talking about?

Are you going to demand I Google it for you again?

[Winehole23]

You're officially off the deep end.I didn't write the article.

If Trump "loses" on Nov 5th, he will try everything to win, like he did last time. But he doesn't need to do anything at all if he can get friendly legislatures to delay EC certification and create a dispute that will be settled by an obliging SCOTUS.

[z0sa]

I didn't write the article.

If Trump "loses" on Nov 5th, he will try everything to win, like he did last time. But he doesn't need to do anything at all if he can get friendly legislatures to delay EC certification and create a dispute that will be settled by an obliging SCOTUS.

Yeah, I don't understand why right-wingers want to stick their fingers in their ears and act like this is an impossibility. My guess is they're banking on a Trump win at the ballot box and thus are taking the "high ground" now knowing they won't have to actually answer for any of these hypotheticals.

[Winehole23]

realistically, all Republicans have to do is blow up one or three polling locations on election day, in strategic cities in swing states.

the next step for Republicans is removing voters directly, violently en masse, to cast doubt on the validity of the election.

[Winehole23]

very strategia della tensione (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy_of_tension) and "The Troubles" (https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/how-the-troubles-began-a-timeline-1.3987076) like

[Winehole23]

I didn't write the article.

If Trump "loses" on Nov 5th, he will try everything to win, like he did last time. But he doesn't need to do anything at all if he can get friendly legislatures to delay EC certification and create a dispute that will be settled by an obliging SCOTUS.

Three of the hired legal hands protesting the count in Florida in 2000 currently sit on the Supreme Court:

Roberts
Kavannaugh
Barrett

I'm sure that's accidental or purely by merit though.

[Winehole23]

Two judicial coups in 25 years would be kind of a lot.

[Winehole23]

That would be like, a third of presidential elections since 2000.

[Winehole23]

red pilled poll watchers are there to intimidate poll workers and fuck up elections, in case Trump loses

1852448705187848305

https://x.com/ryanjhaas/status/1852448705187848305