When you’re driving, it’s important to watch the road ahead, not just the car in front of you. It’s looking more and more plausible that in 9 months everyone on TV will be an expert on the electoral college after a glance at the Drudge Report.<\/p>\n
Let’s start with a semi authoritative source: How a President is chosen is a combination of what the Constitution Says, the rules that Congress made (delegated by the Constitution) and State laws (because the United States is a Republic, not a Democracy), and tradition. It is important to remember – each state is different.<\/p>\n Let’s track a hypothetical President Trump victory as a Republican in a “normal” scenario.<\/p>\n After each party’s primary or caucus, each State holds a state convention. Using the results of the vote, combined with state rules, state laws and National Party Rules, specific individuals (and alternates) are chosen to attend the national convention. Let’s assume Trump wins on the first ballot and everyone is happy. Republicans are Unified.<\/p>\n The state delegations return home with the goal of getting their candidate on the ballot and elected in November. The two mainstream parties automatically are on the ballot. The Libertarian Party is also on most states. The deadline for getting on the November ballot and the requirements are different in each state. Having selected Donald Trump as the candidate, the Republican Party in each State selects electors who will vote for Trump. In November, you are voting for your state’s electors committed to Donald Trump, not Donald Trump.<\/p>\n On November 8th, we vote and parties win in each state. Legal challenges, recounts, hanging chads, etc are possible.<\/p>\n On December 19th, the electors meet in the state capital of each state and Washington DC and create a piece of paper saying “our state casts our nn votes for Trump for President”. A separate document shows the electoral votes for Vice President. Because they run as a pair, those counts -should- be identical.<\/p>\n Those pieces of paper are handed over to the pony express which gallops off toward Washington DC. It is important to understand the “electoral college” is not a group of people meeting in a room – it is 51 pieces of paper.<\/p>\n On Jauary 6th, Vice President Joe Biden presides over the newly sworn in Congress in joint session. The 51 pieces of paper are counted, Donald Trump has more than 269 votes, and will be sworn in on January 20th 2017 as President and life goes on.<\/p>\n But the above is extremely unlikely and there are many places the train can veer off into a ditch.<\/p>\n One way or another, the Republican National Committee will announce the candidates, even if the convention falls apart and devolves into riots and Quicken Arena burns to the ground. Let’s say the party chooses Romney [don’t obsess on the who – this is about the process] and Kasich as VP. Both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz storm out and vow to create new political parties (individually, not together)<\/p>\n The people wanting to run in other than a prequalified party have to navigate a set of rules in each state to get on the ballot – a process designed by the two parties to keep third parties off the ballot. Each state is different.<\/p>\n So let’s say most (but not all) states have a ballot in November with Hillary\/Sanders, Romney\/Kasich, Trump\/Icahn, and Cruz\/Carson and McAfee\/CC running as Libertarians.<\/p>\n Each state (with the exception of Maine and Nebraska) will award its electoral votes to the slate of electors with the plurality of popular votes (most votes – not majority). In a four way race, The Democrats will win all 51 races.<\/p>\n But let’s say for some reason, that doesn’t happen – Cruz wins Texas, Trump wins New York and New Jersey and most of the South, and Romney wins Utah, Massachusetts and Michigan. Nobody has 270 votes.<\/p>\n Joe Biden will announce to Congress that no candidate has the required 270 votes, so the newly elected House must now choose the President<\/em> from among the top three<\/strong> (Let’s say Trump, Hillary and Cruz). Each State gets one equal vote.<\/u> Every House member has a vote within their state delegation. It is likely many state delegations will choose a President different than their electoral college did. The House must keep voting until one President-elect gets the vote of 26 States. If this process is not resolved by January 20th, Barack Obama still leaves office and Joe Biden becomes “Acting President” with full powers as President until the House resolves the issue. The Senate has the same responsibility to choose the Vice President elect. It is very likely the Vice President will be the opposite party – say President Clinton and Vice President Kasich.<\/p>\n At each step along the way, with all of the promises of violence from Democrats, it is important to ask what happens if Donald Trump becomes unable to be President at each point in the timeline. If President Elect Trump is dead (not disabled) before January 20th, the Vice President Elect becomes President. If Trump becomes unable to be president before January 6th and nobody had the 270 votes – the House has the option of choosing a replacement for the top three list – not necessarily a person that even ran for the office or even the same party as the withdrawn candidate – how about Michelle Obama? <\/p>\n What if Trump is the Republican nominee but is unable run in November? What if he wins on November 8th, but something happens before December 19th? Are the electors on their own? Could each elector vote for whomever they want?<\/p>\n This is the real Operation Chaos. No matter what happens, a lot of people will be very unhappy.<\/p>\n Keep your eyes on the focus that the President could be chosen by the newly elected Congress. Trump has no party in any real sense. He isn’t going to organize 535 Congressional races and 34 Senate races in a few weeks. Cruz and the TEA party might. All of the above also applies to Hillary – What if Hillary pleads guilty to a felony on December 15th after having won the election? [A: she still is sworn in as President]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When you’re driving, it’s important to watch the road ahead, not just the car in front of you. It’s looking more and more plausible that in 9 months everyone on TV will be an expert on the electoral college after … Continue reading
\nThe National Archives<\/a><\/p>\n