Joe Biden is the president-elect, and Donald Trump鈥檚 campaign has presented no serious evidence that would lead a judge to throw out enough votes to reverse the outcome of the election.
You can take Ohio State University professor Edward P. Foley鈥檚 word for it. He鈥檚 the Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law at OSU and directs the university鈥檚 election law project. Foley outlined the futility of the president鈥檚 efforts to hold onto power past his presidency鈥檚 Jan. 20 expiration date .
Still, people have found themselves asking, 鈥淲hat if?鈥�
One listener asked ideastream whether state legislatures could manipulate the Electoral College to overturn the will of the voters: 鈥淚s it possible that the Republican legislatures of these battleground states could simply choose electors that are pro-Trump?鈥�
Foley 鈥渕orally repugnant.鈥� Conservative editor Rich Lowry, , called such a gambit a 鈥減oisonous idea鈥� that would provoke a 鈥渢hermonuclear鈥� political reaction. Pennsylvania state Sen. Jake Corman, leader of the Keystone State鈥檚 Republican senate majority, has said .
And Robert Alexander, a professor at Ohio Northern University , doesn鈥檛 see it happening.
State legislatures do have a say in how presidential electors are picked 鈥� but they鈥檝e already made their choice, Alexander told ideastream.
鈥淚n all states across the country, they all determine that the popular vote of their state, or at least their congressional district in the case of Maine and Nebraska, would be how their electors would be selected,鈥� he said.
, for instance, gives the commonwealth鈥檚 voters the job of picking presidential electors. And legislatures can鈥檛 just change a state鈥檚 election rules after Election Day, Alexander said. Plus, legislatures aren鈥檛 the only players here.
鈥淔irst of all, all electoral voters are supposed to be certified by the state election official, which is generally the governor,鈥� Alexander said. 鈥淪o the governor usually signs of on all certificates of ascertainment, is what it鈥檚 referred to.鈥�
And the governors of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania are all Democrats.
Members of the meet in their respective state capitols Dec. 14 to cast their votes for president. Congress counts those votes Jan. 6.
Congress can consider , which must be raised by both a member of the House and the Senate. It takes majorities in both chambers of Congress to uphold any such objection.
In 2005, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) . But the objection failed in both chambers.
Democrats鈥� current control of the House makes it unlikely such an objection to Biden鈥檚 votes would succeed, Alexander said.
The courts probably wouldn鈥檛 go for a state legislative reversal either, he said.
Consider this summer鈥檚 he said. The high court unanimously who switch their presidential votes.
鈥淓arly in our history, States decided to tie electors to the presidential choices of others, whether legislatures or citizens,鈥� . 鈥淓xcept that legislatures no longer play a role, that practice has continued for more than 200 years.鈥�
A state that penalizes faithless electors, Kagan wrote, 鈥渋nstructs its electors that they have no ground for reversing the vote of millions of its citizens.鈥�
In Alexander鈥檚 view, that same principle should hold true in the hypothetical state legislature scenario.
鈥淚f you had a state legislature just put their own slate of electors in, that would be undoing the will of the people,鈥� he said, 鈥渨hich this court literally just said months ago would go against the fabric, or the expectation, of the Electoral College today.鈥�
Copyright 2021 90.3 WCPN ideastream. To see more, visit . 9(MDA5NTM4MTIyMDE0MTg3NDc2MTVlZjdmNQ001))
