This is Trump's plan . . . and it may work

[AverageOldGuy]

The President can be elected in one of two ways:

ONE: We vote. Votes are tallied in each precinct, election officials in each precinct meet and certify results to State authorities. State authorities certify results to Electoral College in DC. Congress meets in joint session, Electoral College certifies results to Congress, Congress votes to accept Electoral College report, President is elected.

TWO: We vote. Votes are tallied in each precinct, election officials in each precinct meet and certify results to State authorities. State authorities DO NOT CERTIFY results to Electoral College in DC either by refusal or by not reporting by date certain. Congress meets in joint session, Electoral College is not able to certify results to Congress because of actions by some or all states. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES votes to elect the President and VP -- EACH STATE GETS ONE VOTE.

If method #2 is used in January 2025, TRUMP WINS because there are more states whose House of Representatives delegations are controlled by Republicans.

Why is this a possibility? Because certain states are setting themselves up to not be able to certify results -- such as in Georgia where the state Board of Elections has voted to hand-count all ballots, a process that will take months, thereby missing the January deadline to report to the Electoral College, thereby throwing the 2024 Presidential election into the House. Arizona may do something similar. Montana has omitted Harris from the electronic ballot that was sent to absentee voters. This was their plan all along.

I hope I'm wrong.

[elleng]

1. COULD work, but gotta think more about it; it's late.

Up for civil war, aren't they???

[B.See]

20. Yep. It certainly is what

THEY'VE been promising, and threatening, if they LOSE.

[captain queeg]

2. All those scammers look for some technicality that could give them a victory.

Rather than endorsing the people’s vote they try to find some loophole. We saw it in action the last election. I just hope Joe has some plan of action if they try it again.

[Mike Niendorff]

3. At which point, the next response will be:

General strike.


MDN

[PCIntern]

15. EXACTLY!!!!!

I have been saying this for YEARS here and get shot down on a regular basis. If half the people who vote for Harris don’t show up for work, this country stops dead in its tracks.

[SomedayKindaLove]

4. This is why Harris needs to win all the swing states

Biden won 6 of the 7 swing states in 2020, for 306 EV. He could have had GA and AZ stolen from him and still won.

My worry is states like TX, FL, and GA are too corrupted for the Dems to win there.

[Self Esteem]

5. This is incorrect.

If a state refuses to certify, their electoral votes aren't included in the overall total so the amount needed for a majority drops.

So, subtract whatever electoral votes they would have from 538. If it's Georgia. It'll be 16 votes subtracted, so now there is 522 total electors. A majority of that wins the presidency.

It doesn't just default to congress if one state refuses to certify.

[pecosbob]

6. What this poster said...

If they don't provide a slate of electors by the required date, their electoral votes end up in the trash.

[LymphocyteLover]

9. that is what I was thinking too. It only goes to Congress for a state vote if there's an electoral tie

which is possible but I think is unlikely to happen

[Liberal In Texas]

14. That's how I read it too.

When the electoral college meets the majority votes elect the pres. That's the majority of votes for the ones that are there to vote. They don't show, they don't count. The number is still 50% +1 not a number engraved in stone, or a number of all potential votes.

[Grown2Hate]

17. I've seen this a few times now, and AWESOME if that's accurate, but where can I find that information

to confirm this is the way it works? I've tried Googling but I'm just not finding that specific info. Thanks in advance!

[Jmb 4 Harris-Walz]

7. I cannot image the American people would allow this to happen.

I understand this may be what the republicans want, but quite honestly I would think this would be a disqualifying factor for any state attempting to do this. Any politicians involved in the plan should immediately be impeached from their office… not sure how it would work 😂 but this whole republican plan to take over America’s government is beyond the pale.

When, not if but WHEN, democrats get the presidency, the senate, and the house, they need to immediately implement POPULAR VOTE for the presidency even if it means eliminating the filibuster.

If we have the popular vote the republicans as they currently exist (MAGAts) will never have another President of the United States!

[C_U_L8R]

8. If Republicans spent more energy

trying to win elections, rather than cheating them, there might be less of them in prison.

[Efilroft Sul]

10. If states don't certify the 11/5 vote, and the election is thrown into the House, can those non-certifying states...

…have their individual votes not counted? Seems like those states disqualified themselves for the House vote, and there should be Democratic lawyers ready to pounce on the Republicans for trying to have things both ways.

On edit, I take Self Esteem's point upthread. But the GOP is so far gone from established political processes that I think we have to consider this election still being thrown into the House, and perhaps with a little help from the Supreme Court getting involved. We are not living in normal times.

[snowybirdie]

11. Its important

we elect democrats in the House and Senate so that the new 119th Congress will be there to certify the proper winner. Jeffries will be Speaker if we do.

[GreenWave]

12. Dark Brandon was bestowed with extraordinary powers by SCROTUS.

[bluestarone]

13. Confusing for sure. My question would be, IF those states do not certify,

What happens to the Senate House races in those states? They could lose lots of seats, am i right?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

16. Trump's odd pitch: 'Our primary focus is not to get out the vote'

With early voting in some states less than a month away, Donald Trump said, “Our primary focus is not to get out the vote.” It's worth understanding why.

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-primary-focus-not-get-out-vote-election-2024-rcna167743

With this in mind, it’s curious to see Donald Trump consistently downplay the need for votes as part of his Republican candidacy. NBC News reported:

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said his strategy for the fall is less geared toward turning out supporters to vote and more focused on ensuring Democrats “don’t cheat” in the general election. “Our primary focus is not to get out the vote, it is to make sure they don’t cheat,” Trump said in remarks at a campaign event in Asheboro, North Carolina, a state Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign views as competitive this year.

“We have all the votes we’ll need,” Trump added, pointing to yard signs as proof of his popularity. As a video excerpt of his remarks made clear, the former president wasn’t kidding.

Link to tweet

I’ve studied campaigns for quite a while, and I honestly can’t think of another example in which a candidate, less than a month before voters start casting ballots in a competitive race, said out loud, “Our primary focus is not to get out the vote.”

If the message sounds familiar, it’s not your imagination. As we discussed roughly a month ago, the GOP candidate peddled the same line on Fox News in late July. “My instruction: We don’t need the votes, I have so many votes,” Trump said......

As best as I can tell, Trump isn’t literally telling Americans not to cast ballots. He’s instead suggesting that he’s so wildly popular, receiving support from voters will be effortless as Election Day nears.

The real challenge, the former president invariably adds, is dealing with cheating and electoral fraud that definitely exist in his weird imagination, despite Trump’s inability to substantiate his conspiracy theories with evidence.

In other words, every time the Republican downplays the need for votes, he’s necessarily emphasizing the need for unnecessary voter intimidation tactics and voting restrictions. Given the volume and repetition of his anti-election rhetoric — Trump asked earlier this week, “Why are we having an election?” — and his yearslong antipathy toward democracy, it’s tough not to find the comments unsettling.

I fear that there will be massive voter suppression efforts close to the election that we will to fight. TFG can not win a fair election and so plans on cheating and suppressing the vote

[Mz Pip]

18. Someone answer this for me...

I get the theory of screwing up the count and not certifying the election, BUT there’s a lot more than just the vote for President on a ballot. What happens to eveything else?. Congressional races, state senate, local school boards, mayors, initiatives, measures? Do these sit in some legislative limbo for weeks or months?
Seems like this would throw the whole state into chaos.

I don’t think you can just invalidate one sliver of a ballot without invalidating the whole damn thing.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

19. Republicans in swing states say they see scant signs of groups door-knocking for Trump

In order to pay TFG's legal fees, Lara Trump dismantled the GOP GOTV operation and is hoping that super pacs will pick up the slack. It seems that very little GOTV efforts/door-knocking is being done

Link to tweet

https://apnews.com/article/trump-political-action-committees-voter-canvassing-musk-0c1c095a6516b7bcbc80bf94fe0fe45a

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Republican activists in swing states say they have seen little sign of the teams tasked with knocking on doors and turning out infrequent voters on behalf of Donald Trump, raising concerns about the party’s presidential nominee relying on outside groups for an important part of his campaign operations.

Trump and the Republican National Committee he controls opted to share get-out-the-vote duties in key parts of the most competitive states this year with groups such as America PAC, the organization supported by billionaire Elon Musk.

It is difficult to demonstrate that something is not happening. But with fewer than 50 days until the Nov. 5 election, dozens of Republican officials, activists and operatives in Michigan, North Carolina and other battleground states say they have rarely or never witnessed the group’s canvassers. In Arizona and Nevada, the Musk-backed political action committee replaced its door-knocking company just this past week.

“I haven’t seen anybody,” said Nate Wilkowski, field director for the Republican Party in vote-rich Oakland County, Michigan, which includes crucial Detroit suburbs. He was speaking specifically of America PAC. “Nobody’s given me a heads-up that they’re around in Oakland County areas.”

I am amused to see that TFG is relying on a DeSantis related super pac for these efforts

Campaign political director James Blair also estimates that close to 2,500 paid canvassers, with America PAC making up a significant chunk, are working in the seven states. The PAC has paid canvassing firms more than $14 million since mid-August for work on the presidential campaign, according to Federal Election Commission spending reports filed by the group.....

America PAC is run by former top aides to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ failed presidential campaign. Trump’s team also is sharing the responsibility of reaching less-frequent voters with groups that include Turning Point USA, led by conservative millennial personality Charlie Kirk, and the Faith and Freedom Coalition, headed by Christian conservative figure Ralph Reed......

Trump is not the first candidate to delegate some typical campaign-managed duties to outside groups. But the arrangement has not gone smoothly for some of the others who have tried it.

Last year, DeSantis entrusted much of the political outreach for his Republican presidential campaign to a super PAC called Never Back Down, with conflict between its board and top campaign personnel late in the lead-up to the Iowa caucuses. Despite starting the campaign with roughly $100 million, DeSantis dropped out after losing the first contest in Iowa.

The reliance of third-parties for GOTV and door-knocking did not work for DeSantis or Jeb Bush. This will be fun to watch

[Kaleva]

21. You are wrong on Step 2

According to the Constitution, a candidate must receive the votes from a majority of the APPOINTED Electors. States that fail to certify cannot appoint Electors so then the total number of Electors that are appointed and who will vote on the designated day will decrease and thus the threshold will also decrease.