[pols, curr ev] Action: Petition the Electoral College

[siderea]

There is a Change.com petition to be presented to the Electoral College, asking them to make Clinton president instead of Trump. The goal is 5 million signatures, and they're just shy of 4.5 million right now

Comments

[heron61]

It won't work, the House has to ratify the decision of president and the Senate has to ratify the decision of vice president. They won't pick Clinton and Kaine. OTOH, petitions for the Electors to pick less insane and dangerous Republicans (and they can pick anyone, the House and Senate can then pick from the top 3 people the Electors voted for) might work, since there's a fair amount of anti-Trump sentiment, and President Ryan, Kasich, Mcmullin, or whoever wouldn't be good, but also would not be potentially horrific.

[ron_newman]

President Romney? Not someone I would ever vote for, but at least he's reasonably sane and competent.

[sauergeek]

That's not quite correct. If the electors produce a majority vote for President and Vice President, those votes are absolute. Only if there is no majority for one or the other does the vote of the respective house come into play.

[heron61]

The House and Senate need to ratify the vote take by the Electors. This ratification is normally a formality (just like the electoral college itself). However, if the Electoral College voted for Clinton, there is no necessity that Congress accept this vote, they ultimately have the final say.

[sauergeek]

The 12th Amendment controls the procedure (the 20th altered some non-critical parts for this discussion, which I include for completeness). The pertinent parts of the 12th are as I summarized above. There is no Congressional ratification of the electors -- the phrase is "shall be the...", with no ratification mechanism -- if a majority of the electors have chosen one candidate. The President of the Senate's job is solely counting, with the rest of Congress there as witnesses

[conuly]

And please understand, if it does work - or if for any reason the Electoral College choses Clinton over Trump - that is going to give this country a big shove towards civil war.

Yes, their side has all the guns. I'm also emailing all the electors whose political emails I can get my hands on - there's a list over at Flip the 37. In email, I'm only asking them to abstain, though - that might be an easier pill to swallow than voting for Clinton.