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2020 Presidential Election part 2

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How come all the electors from a state has to vote for the same candidate? Why don't they vote proportionally to how the votes fell? (As far as possible, at least?)

Because that gives the states the most power and the states are who gets the say in how their votes are distributed.

Two states (Nebraska and Maine) do distribute their votes proportionally.
 
How come all the electors from a state has to vote for the same candidate? Why don't they vote proportionally to how the votes fell? (As far as possible, at least?)

It depends on the state. Maine and Nebraska actually divide their electoral college vote depending on the district and/or statewide vote. The other states are winner take all. In many states there are laws in place to prevent electors voting according to their own whims.
 
How come all the electors from a state has to vote for the same candidate? Why don't they vote proportionally to how the votes fell? (As far as possible, at least?)

By the way, there is a movement called the Electoral Compact, or something like that, that several states have signed onto. Each state legislature has said that if states whose total electoral vote is 270 or greater all pass the same compact, then each of those states will assign their electors to whichever candidate receives the highest national popular vote.

I don't know how close they are to 270, but several states have passed it.

It would undoubtedly be challenged in court, but I think it would hold up. The legislatures of those states have specified a manner to be used to select that state's electors.

So, it's conceivable that some time in the future we will just have a sane election where the guy with the most votes becomes president.


Until then......are there any new votes posted from rural Nevada?
 
Hmmm.....

It’s interesting to note that in PA Trump has not only surpassed his 2016 turnout there, but also Obama’s in 2012, and it looks like he may even surpass Obama’s 2008 turnout. If he does, then Biden needs to make up more votes than Obama’s 2008 margin.

Yet we see that even though he won the two other Rust Belt states(WI & MI), in neither of them did he surpass Obama’s 2008 performance.

And right now Biden is still in with a real chance to take PA. It's He's getting 90& of the mail in votes Philadelphia and there are enough of those to practically eliminate Trump's lead and if the other remaining areas aren't that good they are still breaking 2 to 1 or better in favour of Biden. There's a reason Trump has been screaming so loud about stopping the count in PA.
 
It depends on the state. Maine and Nebraska actually divide their electoral college vote depending on the district and/or statewide vote. The other states are winner take all. In many states there are laws in place to prevent electors voting according to their own whims.

33 states and the District of Columbia have laws against Faithless Electors although about half of those states have no enforcement method.

Only 3 states actually void the elector's vote if it goes against popular vote however.

So while we have laws, they are completely toothless. You could trade Democracy for a 300 dollar fine in most states.

But again we're missing the point. The United States Supreme Court has, again and again, only reaffirmed that "States decide how to vote." So all of this can be changed as easily as a traffic law or tax code.

If a Republican Governor with a Republican state Legislature tell Johnny Q. Elector to vote for Trump even if the population of the state didn't... the Supreme Court will rule in their favor.
 
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By the way, there is a movement called the Electoral Compact, or something like that, that several states have signed onto. Each state legislature has said that if states whose total electoral vote is 270 or greater all pass the same compact, then each of those states will assign their electors to whichever candidate receives the highest national popular vote.

I don't know how close they are to 270, but several states have passed it.

It would undoubtedly be challenged in court, but I think it would hold up. The legislatures of those states have specified a manner to be used to select that state's electors.

So, it's conceivable that some time in the future we will just have a sane election where the guy with the most votes becomes president.


Until then......are there any new votes posted from rural Nevada?

National Popular Vote Interstate Compact:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact
 
Kevin Sorbo tweeted

@ksorbs
I never see people driving around with Biden flags, someone want to explain how this guy who couldn’t fill a high school auditorium is leading currently?
 
And right now Biden is still in with a real chance to take PA. It's He's getting 90& of the mail in votes Philadelphia and there are enough of those to practically eliminate Trump's lead and if the other remaining areas aren't that good they are still breaking 2 to 1 or better in favour of Biden. There's a reason Trump has been screaming so loud about stopping the count in PA.
I am less encouraged.
Unless I misunderstood, CNN has stated that there are only about 85,000 total votes left to count in Philadelphia (where Biden is garnering 80%). That pretty much maxes his pickup there at around 50,000- offset even more by votes in red counties.

NV and AZ are going to decide this, it seems.
 
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Hey foreign types.

Context. How long does it take for you guys to get results after major but routine elections?

Well barring a few rural odds and sods usually the next morning and of course if a different party takes a majority the one currently in power is out immediately.
 
So this is where we are standing.

Arizona. About 450,000 ballots left to count. No firm timeframe on when they will be finished.

Georgia. About 47,000 ballots left to count. No firm timeframe on when they will be finished.

Nevada. No real answer on how many votes are left to count. Mail in ballot can still be received until the 10th as long as they were postmarked by Election day. No firm timeframe on when they will be finished.

North Carolina. No results until next week.

Pennsylvania. 370,000 votes left to be counted. Could get the final count today, maybe not.

Alaska. It's cold.

From the NYT's current stats my back of an envelope estimate is around 151,000 or so.
 
33 states and the District of Columbia have laws against Faithless Electors although about half of those states have no enforcement method.

Only 3 states actually void the elector's vote if it goes against popular vote however.

So while we have laws, they are completely toothless. You could trade Democracy for a 300 dollar fine in most states.

But again we're missing the point. The United States Supreme Court has, again and again, only reaffirmed that "States decide how to vote." So all of this can be changed as easily as a traffic law or tax code.

If a Republican Governor with a Republican state Legislature tell Johnny Q. Elector to vote for Trump even if the population of the state didn't... the Supreme Court will rule in their favor.

But again, wouldn’t that instruction itself be toothless? It is the state laws requiring electors to follow the electorate which have been ruled constitutional. As far as I know they haven’t ruled the same way about Governors ordering electors to defy the popular vote in the state.
 
Pennsylvania:

I have done the maths. If Biden continues on his ratio of 2.818181818:1 for every Trump absentee vote for the remaining 8% of the vote (92% counted) of 511,088 then Biden will win by 4.136%. Final total Biden: 3,619,766, Trump 3,374,172, with Biden getting a further 377,303 and Trump 133,785 ceteris paribus. Probably need to adjust this downwards - this is best case.

If this pans out we have the 46th POTUS.
 
Said before many times, but the side shouting “stop counting votes!” Is kind of the default bad guys.

True in 2000, true now.
They are fascists. They are attempting to subvert the Constitution.

Below, a retweet of his own tweet. (Well, the first one, anyway.)
 

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Don't you guys vote by dropping a colored pebble in a box or something?

Don’t you guys vote by pulling a lever on a Rube-Goldberg hole-punch machine?

Or using mis-aligned touchscreen panels. Or the envelope that goes in the envelope within an envelope and you can only sign one with a signature that matches your elementary school organ donation card (in the event of a school shooting)? Or complete a crystal maze obstacle course or hold in your pee for a Guinness Book of records attempt...or something???

;)
 
But again, wouldn’t that instruction itself be toothless? It is the state laws requiring electors to follow the electorate which have been ruled constitutional. As far as I know they haven’t ruled the same way about Governors ordering electors to defy the popular vote in the state.

But thats my point. If State X goes for Biden but all the electors decide to vote for Trump, the state is the only one who can punish them. If they just decide not to, the Supreme Court will not intervene.

So all you have to do is make the order to vote for Trump under the table which wouldn't be that hard.

It's sort of the "Jury Nullification" thing on a larger scale. Legally speaking Electors can't be wrong unless the state says they are.

Now of course this can't happen on a large scale, but we're looking at a handful of votes to tip this election and we had 10 Faithless Electors last election... 7 of those votes are still legally and Constitutionally valid.

There's a lot of scenarios on the table right now where this election is going to be within 7 votes.

This is not likely, but given Trump already declared war on the election it's not crazy to consider.
 
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