2020 electoral college voting **live commentary thread**

[American2020]

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1338640722094936072

[Gass3268]

Biden is addressing the nation on all the major networks.

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/AdamBSullivan/status/1338547335236870147

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

Sens. Braun, Blunt, and Portman have all just congratulated Biden and referred to him as President-elect. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry is the only House Republican to do so at the moment.

Senators Mike Rounds and Shelley Moore Capito have joined the list.

[South Dakota Democrat]

Someone get the man a cough drop.

[Gass3268]

https://twitter.com/geoffrbennett/status/1338649160984223746?s=21

[South Dakota Democrat]

I liked the speech.  I love how he didn't hold back on Trump's assault on democracy (well, he held back more than I would have...he didn't say the word treason, for instance).

[ProudModerate2]

Hawaii sealed it.
In trump's (and his campaign's) own 2016 words ... Biden won by a "landslide."

[brucejoel99]

The speech preempted Jeopardy! so I am a bit perturbed.

[Sestak]

Sens. Braun, Blunt, and Portman have all just congratulated Biden and referred to him as President-elect. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry is the only House Republican to do so at the moment.

Congratulations to Senators-elect Hartzler and Jordan.

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/oneunderscore__/status/1338649269482479616

[Pouring Rain and Blairing Music]

The speech preempted Jeopardy! so I am a bit perturbed.

Ugh, AT&T and the company that owns the channel that Jeopardy runs on in Sacramento are having a feud, so I had to buy a pair of rabbit ears that does a great job at catching all over the air channels except the one with jeopardy.

[GeorgiaModerate]

The speech preempted Jeopardy! so I am a bit perturbed.

Ugh, AT&T and the company that owns the channel that Jeopardy runs on in Sacramento are having a feud, so I had to buy a pair of rabbit ears that does a great job at catching all over the air channels except the one with jeopardy.

Same problem in Atlanta.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

I am surprised at how deplorable House Republicans are compared to Senate Republicans in regards to admitting Biden won.

[South Dakota Democrat]

I am surprised at how deplorable House Republicans are compared to Senate Republicans in regards to admitting Biden won.

I'm not.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I am surprised at how deplorable House Republicans are compared to Senate Republicans in regards to admitting Biden won.

I'm not.

I'm tempted to make a pat observation about the inherently more #populist nature of the House plus the "'HERESY!' *blam*" culture of Republican Congressional primaries, but that still doesn't explain why Senators from very Trumpy states like South Dakota and Missouri have recognized Biden, and even warned one another against playing antidemocratic games with the Electoral Count Act, while much more "moderate" House Republicans are doing insane stunts like signing that amicus brief. Maybe it really is just the different institutional cultures of the two houses.

[South Dakota Democrat]

I am surprised at how deplorable House Republicans are compared to Senate Republicans in regards to admitting Biden won.

I'm not.

I'm tempted to make a pat observation about the inherently more #populist nature of the House plus the "'HERESY!' *blam*" culture of Republican Congressional primaries, but that still doesn't explain why Senators from very Trumpy states like South Dakota and Missouri have recognized Biden, and even warned one another against playing antidemocratic games with the Electoral Count Act, while much more "moderate" House Republicans are doing insane stunts like signing that amicus brief. Maybe it really is just the different institutional cultures of the two houses.

It's almost 100% that last sentence you typed, I think.

[BaldEagle1991]

So no faithless electors this year?

[emailking]

Nope, none.

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

Biden winning more EVs than Trump did in 2016 (304) is the cherry on top.

[brucejoel99]

I am surprised at how deplorable House Republicans are compared to Senate Republicans in regards to admitting Biden won.

I'm not.

I'm tempted to make a pat observation about the inherently more #populist nature of the House plus the "'HERESY!' *blam*" culture of Republican Congressional primaries, but that still doesn't explain why Senators from very Trumpy states like South Dakota and Missouri have recognized Biden, and even warned one another against playing antidemocratic games with the Electoral Count Act, while much more "moderate" House Republicans are doing insane stunts like signing that amicus brief. Maybe it really is just the different institutional cultures of the two houses.

It's almost 100% that last sentence you typed, I think.

Also, the factor that Senators (depending on who they are) have upwards of years for their primary voters to forget about this. Representatives have months, at best, before challengers can come out of the woodwork.

[pbrower2a]

Do college electors even have powers to demand anything?

They can make speeches. They can say what people normally say in political speeches. Usually such is at most an empty gesture. Basically what these electors have done is to call for electors in other states to change their votes contrary to a mandate that they got in the election.

Consider this: most US citizens have practically no participation in politics except for voting in elections. That is the essence of American democracy: we vote for our Representatives in Congress, for Senators, and for the President. To nullify an election is to destroy democracy.

Consider that Vladimir Lenin had little control of anything after the Bolshevik Revolution until Lenin shut down the democratically-elected Constituent Assembly. After that Lenin could rule by decree. On the other side of the political spectrum Chile after the Pinochet coup became as repressive as a typical Commie state once he dissolved the Chilean Congress and suspended all political activity.  

It is hard to believe that some Americans would kill democracy to save the nation... they do not realize that they would cause either a fascist dictatorship or the dissolution of our system. Or do they not care?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

More lunacy from the state of Texas...

https://twitter.com/AlexSamuelsx5/status/1338604149169156099?s=20

So what does this mean exactly? Seems like the exact thing the D hacks here insisted would never ever happen.

Stop dooming about this, the "state legislator coup" was always legally dubious since all states have laws to appoint the electors by popular vote winner, and if it were to be done, it had to be done before the electors actually voted. You can now proceed to doom about fake "dueling electors" and the Electoral Count Act instead.

Everything done by Trump while president is legally dubious, and that has stopped none of it. And I asked a question as on the surface this is what it seems--if you want to cover your ears and pretend nothing is wrong then go find some left wing Fox equivalent.

The vote by the Texas electors is pure grandstanding. They have no right to compel the PA/WI/MI/GA legislatures to do anything. Trump demanded the same thing of these legislatures for week and they didn't do what he asked, and now after the electors already voted the state legislator coup is dead as I and multiple others have pointed out.

If you want to doom, at least doom about something which has a nonzero chance of happening, such as weird Electoral Count Act shenanigans with these illegitimate "dueling electors."

I'm talking about the alternate slate of electors that cast votes, which did in fact happen.

If I went to Washington, DC and got three residents to get together and sign a certificate stating that they were the electors from the Emo Party and were casting DC's electoral votes for the ticket of Guy Picciotto/Ian MacKaye, would that have any legal recognition whatsoever or cause DC's electoral votes to be counted for Picciotto/MacKaye?

[DrScholl]

The Arizona Republican Party is completely in alternate reality.
https://twitter.com/AZGOP/status/1338704664578072577

[2952-0-0]

The Arizona Republican Party is completely in alternate reality.
https://twitter.com/AZGOP/status/1338704664578072577