North Dakota Considers Hiding Vote Totals

[RandySF]

“The North Dakota Senate this week passed a bill which aims to forbid election officials from disclosing how many actual votes are cast for each candidate in upcoming presidential elections,” Law & Crime reports.

“The total tallies would only be disclosed after future Electoral Colleges convene to select an official victor.”




https://politicalwire.com/2021/02/28/north-dakota-considers-hiding-vote-totals/

[FakeNoose]

1. Maybe they should charge people $1 each to get advance notice?

Hey this could be a money-maker!

[Chipper Chat]

2. Shades of Ken Blackwell.

Start the steal !

[TrogL]

3. I have no idea what to say

I’ve worked as a variety of election officials up here in Canada. This would be utter heresy here.

I checked and it’s not a parody site.

is going on down there?

[PatSeg]

9. It is heresy here as well

That is absolutely nuts.

[Progressive Jones]

19. It would literally cause a violent backlash here in IL, even from the GOP. nt

[AKwannabe]

4. FFS!

[rsdsharp]

5. It's useful for the losing party (the Democrat of course)

to know the actual vote count when making a decision about whether to ask for a recount. It’s a little late if you find out it was very close just as they award the electoral votes to the Republican.

[Deminpenn]

6. ND hasn't elected a Dem or voted for a Dem president

since Daschle and Conrad.

[notinkansas]

7. There is just no level to which they will not stoop.

There is no bottom to this pit.

[Deminpenn]

8. Apparently not, even if it ends up hurting Republicans

themselves.

[Yeehah]

10. Fascists seek a dictatorship

Their ultimate goal is to do away with elections entirely.

[jaysunb]

11. Keeping the courts busy with 300 + Trump appointed judges. Nt

[Buckeyeblue]

12. That's has to be satire.

[dragonlady]

13. Do they think there would never be leaks? n/t

[Algernon Moncrieff]

14. Sadly nothing prevents this

I strongly suspect that it makes no difference in NoDak, but it's a trial balloon for the courts.

Here is what the constitution says:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President.

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

Starting with the next election, and going forward until the Constitution is amended, state legislatures are going to decide who is President. We need to get laser focused on state house elections and forcing states to pass laws honoring the will of the electorate.

[zipplewrath]

15. This past election was a dry run

It's the GQP figuring out how they can control elections despite not having the votes.

[bluestarone]

18. THIS

[SWBTATTReg]

16. So they want to do what probably Kentucky does w/ its voting numbers, despite polls showing

moscow mitch behind and such or neck and neck w/ his opponent, somehow, he managed to pull ahead and win, even thought the ending vote tallies don't even match up w/ the number of registered voters in the state, and all kinds of other suspect items.

[dalton99a]

17. Kick

[demmiblue]

20. Jesus H. Christ on a trailer hitch. n/t

[dsc]

21. actually this has a deeper purpose

I had no idea why they were doing this, since the percent was to be reported down to the nearest 1/100 and one presumes the rest of the elections would be reported by vote total. It would be fairly easy to have a very good estimate of how many votes each candidate received. But what they are doing is trying to frustrate the national popular vote compact. If the total vote isn't reported before the EV votes are cast then the popular vote compact won't work.