Question...

[pat_k]

2. I don't think "day prescribed by law" . . .

. . .is the deadline a state sets itself for certification. Recounts and audits can occur after certification. If a legislature "short circuits" the process and intervenes to appoint electors to the loser of the state's vote, then it is up to Congress to toss those electors out as unlawfully appointed on Jan 6.

When the Supreme Court intervened and called the incomplete 2000 election in Florida for Bush on Dec 12, 2000 they rendered the appointment of the electors unlawful (appointed pursuant to an incomplete election as per Florida law). Gore should not have conceded. He and the Democratic caucuses in the House and Senate should have educated the public and fought to toss the unlawfully appointed electors out on Jan 6, 2001. (Pretty much as Justice Bryer instructed them to in his dissent.)