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Tea Partiers Refuse to Give Up Their Electoral College Scheme to Elect Romney
Even after Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips’ scheme to elect Mitt Romney president through the electoral college was debunked, the idea continues to gain traction with some reality challenged tea partiers.
On November 19, Phillips wrote,
Is there a way to stop this?
Yes, there is.
And the best part – this is totally constitutional.
The 12th Amendment of the Constitution as well as Article II of the Constitution govern the Electoral College.
According to the 12th Amendment, for the Electoral College to be able to select the president, it must have a quorum of two-thirds of the states voting. If enough states refuse to participate, the Electoral College will not have a quorum. If the Electoral College does not have a quorum or otherwise cannot vote or decide, then the responsibility for selecting the president and vice president devolves to the Congress.
The House of Representatives selects the president and the Senate selects the vice president.
Since the Republicans hold a majority in the House, presumably they would vote for Mitt Romney, and the Democrats in the Senate would vote for Joe Biden for vice president.
Can this work?
Sure it can.
Actually, it can’t. Phillips misread the 12th Amendment. The quorum rule only applies to the House of Representatives, not the Electoral College. World Net Daily updated the Philips post with the correct information. People wrote it, and then everyone went about their Thanksgiving business under the assumption that this crazy, stupid, and incorrect reading of the 12 Amendment was over and done with.
However, Philips’ incorrect reading of the 12th Amendment has found new life in the dark subculture of right wing chain emails. One of these chain emails found their way into the inbox of Idaho state Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll, who is urging states to boycott the Electoral College, so that Romney can win the presidency. When Nuxoll was told that Philips had it all wrong, and the scheme to boycott the Electoral College won’t work, she said, “Well, I guess that’s one lawyer. She later went on to tell the Idaho Statesman that, “I think it is very, very sad that we elected our current president, because he is definitely not following (the) Constitution. He is depriving us of our freedoms by all the agencies, and so … what I’m thinking is the states are going to have to stand up for our individual rights and for our collective rights.”
Susan Nuxoll is a perfect example of why the talk among Republican leadership about the need to move the party to the middle is destined to fail. Even when confronted with facts such as Obama’s reelection victory and that Mitt Romney can’t be elected president through an Electoral College boycott, they still refuse to acknowledge reality.
Tea partiers are still rejecting reality, and they will reject any candidate who tries to deliver reality to them. Pragmatic and clear minded Republicans are facing the Herculean task of bringing people like Sheryl Nuxoll back to reality.
The tea party mindset is the reason why congressional Republicans are saying they won’t raise taxes while demanding that Obamacare be on the table in the fiscal cliff negotiations. These people are existing in their own reality in an alternate universe. Until they join the rest of back on earth, any negotiations with them will fail and the Republican Party will continue to flounder.
To tea partiers President Romney is coming in the second week of December, and what the constitution says is just one man’s opinion. The tea party isn’t going anywhere, and that’s bad news for fans of compromise and reality everywhere.
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33 Responses to Tea Partiers Refuse to Give Up Their Electoral College Scheme to Elect Romney
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Reynardine
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 1:49 pm
Indeed, one of the things I said to watch out for is faithless electors, but a margin of 100 electors is too big to flip by anything but a Pinochet- type coup.
K from Bellingham
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 1:52 pm
LOVE the Teabonics in the picture…”Consitution” LOL!!
mjh
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 4:41 pm
I love the term “Teabonics”.
May I have your permission to reuse?
.
Rick Shreiner
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 8:03 pm
TEAtards ! !
Ha, ha, ha ! !
Shiva (Moderator)
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 2:06 pm
It certainly seems to me that if the president was doing anything unconstitutional, Daryl Issa would be all over it like flies on ice cream. I don’t see anyone in the Congress that I’m aware of with valid reasons saying the president is not doing what he is supposed to do.
The credibility of the tea party is right down there amongst the muck with Sarah Palins
Mark Levin
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 2:18 pm
I think the time has come in this country to round up these weakminded individuals and force them by force if neccessary and place them into a mental health facility. We need the country to move forward not be slowed by a bunch of people who carry the bible around, but then preach hate about the rest of the country. If you spot a tea partier, then you should round them up and bring them down to your local jail and from there they will be put in stray jackets and hauled to the private unknown mental facility.
Jason Ward
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 8:21 pm
Is a “stray jacket” anything like a “straight jacket”?
Nefer
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 2:20 pm
So they have their new “he’s illegitimate!” talking points for the next four years.
Instead of calling the President a usurper and illegitimate due to idiotic conspiracies about his citizenship, they can prattle on about the illegitimacy of his Presidency due to the clear refusal of the powers that be to uphold the 12th amendment quorum rules regarding the electoral college. It’s a conspiracy, I tells ya!
djchefron
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 3:34 pm
See the problem with teabagging foolishness is that a quorum is required for congress not the electoral college.To win in the Electoral College, a presidential candidate needs only to get at least 270 electoral votes. No quorum is required.I know they are slow but dayummm!Reading is fundemental.
mjh
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 4:39 pm
To win in the Electoral College, a presidential candidate needs only to get at least 270 electoral votes. No quorum is required.I know they are slow but dayummm!Reading is fundamental.
True, but remember — basic math isn’t their strong suit, either . . .
.
Brian Loudermilch
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 3:14 pm
Of Course, If you Actually read the Constitution,
you “Discover” the awkward FACT that the President
can only sign Bills into Law or Veto bills and send
them back to Congress.
The ONLY way that anyone can “Steal Freedoms” is if
the Congress passes a LAW allowing that to Happen.
Does ANYONE in the Repugnicant Party have the
Intelligence to Understand that FACT ?
Apparently NOT.
djchefron
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 4:10 pm
facts!we dont nead kno stinkin facts!!!!!
sherrie heckendorn
Nov. 28th, 2012 at 5:46 pm
I agree with your assessment.
luciboo
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 4:13 pm
Why can’t they all go to Texas and secede . Please stop lying and trying to buy every election.
What part of democracy don’t you crazy people understand! I am so tired of this right wing garbage.
fedded-up
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 4:56 pm
It should be really obvious to all just which people in this country are chock full of a monstrously overblown and wholly unjustified sense of entitlement. When they get a whopping dose of reality, THIS is what they do.
And THIS is the result of having the Fox News propaganda machine churning out disinformation day and night 24/7/365. Harping on and on endlessly about stupid conspiracies and the ‘war on religion’ and ‘they’re gonna take your guns,’ and whatever other equally silly meme they can either invent or twist the facts to fit. It is dangerous and it needs to be stopped.
mjh
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 5:22 pm
“The 12th Amendment of the Constitution as well as Article II of the Constitution govern the Electoral College.”
Hey, idiot –
Article II of the US Constitution was written in 1789; the Electoral College was established in 1804 . . .
“If enough states refuse to participate, the Electoral College will not have a quorum.”
AWWW — too bad all the states chose to participate, eh, Judson?
.
Christopher
Nov. 28th, 2012 at 12:01 am
We’ve had the “Electoral College” from the beginning though I put the term in quotes since it’s never used in the Constitution. Originally each elector cast two votes without distinguishing between POTUS and VP as long as at least one did not come from his own state. The top vote-getter became President and the second highest vote-getter became VP. Washington got the unanimous support of the electors in 1788 and 1792 and John Adams got the highest number of second votes giving him the Vice Presidency. The change in 1804 was to have each elector vote separately for the two offices.
Anne
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 6:15 pm
These folks are so sick and twisted that they simply don’t deserve a political forum. They are living in the same delusional bubble that Romney-Ryan and the rest of the GOP has been residing in. It’s a sad commentary that they are the official face of the Republican party.
SinghX
Nov. 28th, 2012 at 6:53 am
“They are living in the same delusional bubble that Romney-Ryan and the rest of the GOP has been residing in…”
Quite frankly, I don’t see how they can, but, they do! Either they don’t remember the what happened to the country during McCarthyism, or, they don’t really remember the 50′s (that place they want to return).
The only element that makes sense, creates “the bubble” is Fox News. The 50′s was full of these types, especially fundamentalist morality police, but you had to read about them in the papers…
I’m not so sure any longer whether or not this is a “2nd Gen Moral Majority” or a new breed of sociopaths. But, I do know that the bubble exist and, that it is nothing more that an infomercial of fabricated crap to keep people buying in…
majii
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 7:32 pm
None of them, including Phillips, the World Nut Daily Crowd, or Nuxoll have looked at the map showing the states the president won. If they had, they would see that they are NOT states with large tea party populations. This would tell them that even if the red states’ electors refused to cast their votes next month, the president would still win re-election. Neither logic, mathematics, nor critical thinking seem to be a part of these folks’ make up. They seem to think that if they believe/feel/think a certain thing, that that makes it real and valid. Sad.
46A9MA
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 7:33 pm
Religious extremist perverting their Bible or Qu’ran to justify their actions, and anti-Obama obstructionists hide behind their version of the Constitution to further their agenda. What’s the difference between them, I wonder?
Sabyen91
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 9:24 pm
Hey, I am for red state electors sitting out every election.
susan
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 10:59 pm
Let’s review: GOP is now comprised of looney teabonics who can’t read, Millionaires like mendacious Mitt who can’t do math and has no social skills and many billionaires who have no taste for democracy but want to buy elections. None of them seems turned off by a lying candidate. All I can say is, thank goodness for the electoral college that would have saved us from this tyranny if the popular vote had somehow gone to Romney.
MTinMO
Nov. 27th, 2012 at 11:01 pm
Insanity. Pure insanity. These people, especially the ones who are elected, have so little knowledge about the Constitution, they are scary. How is it that some of these people ever get elected? Do you Idahoans have no standards? Do you not expect your elected representatives to have at least a modicum of intelligence? Don’t you want them to have at least a working knowledge of the US Constitution? It is a document that has been around for awhile and is readily available to read. You can even find instructional materials to break it down and explain it to you. Kind of a “Constitution for Dummies” kind of thing.
D. W. Skinner
Nov. 28th, 2012 at 12:06 am
Point them toward Big Foot… that will keep them occupied the next four years..
Snarki, child of Loki
Nov. 28th, 2012 at 9:12 am
I would certainly agree with the “Idiot teabaggers misread the Constitution” theme, except for ONE small problem.
Scalia.
Let that sink in for a minute….
John Oliver Mason
Nov. 28th, 2012 at 10:55 am
Who cares if the teaheads don’t face reality? We won’t wait for them to catch up, we’ll go forward and leave them behind. And how can they interpret the Constitution if they can’t spell the damn word?
perplexed
Nov. 28th, 2012 at 5:26 pm
For those who are old enough to remember, the extreme right was just as hysterical about Clinton’s 2 elections. They even accused him of murder, and then they managed to get enough votes in the House of Representatives to impeach him; and in spite of all of that he is still one of the most popular politicians we have, and could have easily won a 3rd term if he wasn’t prevented to by term-limits. So, my point is, we need to keep moving forward and not take these nuts too seriously. They will apparently always be with us, but most of us will do the right thing most of the time.
Pediego
Nov. 28th, 2012 at 5:59 pm
If you can’t spell the word CONSTITUTION correctly in the first place I don’t think you understand any of it. A Harvard Law Professor is the POTUS. Get over it.
SheljCran1
Nov. 28th, 2012 at 8:43 pm
Is it me or are the republicans acting as if they are in a Twilight Zone movie or something. Even if they go to sleep and wake up, Barack Obama will still be the POTUS. Even at this late date they are still crying foul. Democrats did the same thin when Bush legitimately stole the election from Al Gore, what happen, we got over it.
Shiva (Moderator)
Nov. 28th, 2012 at 8:47 pm
And Mccain is still being sent to bed with no corn flakes.
Reynardine
Nov. 29th, 2012 at 4:39 am
But Mrs. McCain isn’t.
James Threadgill
Nov. 28th, 2012 at 10:01 pm
W killed the elephant. Rove sent engraved invitations to every right wing radical in the nation in the name of putting W and his incompetents in the White House. Now the crazies have high-jacked the asylum.
I urge everyone to be prepared for even the most unlikely of scenarios as these are crazies with guns. They may try anything, no matter how foolish or inconceivable. I know this because I’ve lived with them all around me most of my life in Texas. They love bumper stickers which state they will give up their guns when their cold dead fingers are pried away. Unfortunately, that may become necessary before this is over.
Be prepared!
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