Site Meter

Friday, October 02, 2020

Constitutional Nit Picking

I object to this sentence in this article by Paul Kane in the Washington Post "In such a scenario, deciding the presidency falls to the House of Representatives, but in a rare twist mandated by the 12th Amendment after the contested 1800 election, each state’s delegation counts as one vote. "

In fact, we can blame the delegates at the Constitutional Convention (as well as the 7th Congress) for that particular offence against Democracy. Back in 1800, The Constitution Article II Section 1 included "But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote;"

The one state one vote rule does appear in the 12th Amendment, but it was already in the original Constitution.

A more important point is that this is only relevant if there is a 269-269 tie in the electoral college. The 12th amendment also says " The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed;" Notice "Electors appointed" not "More than the number of states plus half the number of representatives" or currently more than 269.

It is (still in spite of everything) inconceivable that the race be called before it was agreed who won the tipping point state, but if it is decided that a President elect must be declared while the winner of some state is contested, the matter will not go to the House voting one state one vote (as always results must be certified by the House voting the normal way one representative one vote).

It has not always been true that all states are represented in the electoral college. It hasn't always been true in my lifetime (I was born on November 9 1960 the day after electors were elected November 8 1960 but before those electors Kennedy). In 1960 the electors for Hawaii were never assigned because the outcome was contested when the electors voted. This means that Hawaii had to wait until 1964 to be represented in the electoral college after becoming a state on August 21, 1959.

6 comments:

JimV said...

We really need to start over with a new constitution which makes sense.

Provisions I would like to see considered (apart from the obvious "eliminate the Electoral College", etc.):

No one may campaign for public office while in public office.

Terms of House of Representative seats should be staggered so they aren't all up at the same time.

All candidates for public office must submit to lie-detector tests in which their policies and promises and records are questioned by state of the art methods such as MRI scans.

All financial records for at least the last ten years of candidates for public office must be submitted for public viewing.

I have more, but the margins of this blog are too small to contain them all.

Isabella Lucas said...

My ex-husband and I had always managed to stay friendly after our divorce in February 2017. But I always wanted to get back together with him, All it took was a visit to this spell casters website last December, because my dream was to start a new year with my husband, and live happily with him.. This spell caster requested a specific love spell for me and my husband, and I accepted it. And this powerful spell caster began to work his magic. And 48 hours after this spell caster worked for me, my husband called me back for us to be together again, and he was remorseful for all his wrong deeds. My spell is working because guess what: My “husband” is back and we are making preparations on how to go to court and withdraw our divorce papers ASAP. This is nothing short of a miracle. Thank you Dr Emu for your powerful spells. Words are not enough. here is his Email: emutemple@gmail.com or call/text him on his WhatsApp +2347012841542

He is also able to cast spell like 1: Lottery 2: Conceive 3: Breakup 4: Divorce 5: Cure for all kinds of diseases and viruses.

Angel charls said...

The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed
for any query or support go here

DR AZIBA HERBAL HOME said...

I want to share this wonderful testimony to the Good people all over the world on how I was able to Enlarge my Penis by Dr. Aziba. I was living a shameful life from my young age, just last month as I was browsing on the internet about Penis size and Enlargement Products, I saw a testimony of a Man called Tim James testifying of how he was able to get his penis Enlarged by Dr. Aziba and I decided to also Email Dr. Aziba for my small penis size and he quickly respond to me and gave me the normal instructions which i did and then he shipped the product to me here in the united state which i received in just 3 working days and today i am very happy because i started seeing positive changes in my penis size in just 7 days of use. Dr Aziba herbal product is the best recommended for you and to whom ever suffering from this shame or having any other diseases as well should Contact this great herbal doctor via his Email : Priestazibasolutioncenter@gmail.com and WhatsApp Him on +2348100368288

online google casino said...

Awesome content posted here.

online google casino said...

You post an awesome article.