Potentially disturbing news on Florida - Gore's strategy

K

KenPaul

New member
I think I see Gore's strategy now:

I just heard that if Florida doesn't get its act together by December 18 (when the electoral college is supposed to cast its votes) the electoral college could Constitutionally proceed without Florida and decisively cast what votes are available!

Therefore, if Gore can run a delaying action until after the EC votes, he becomes the big cheeze since he currently has more electoral votes than Bush!

Say it isn't so!

Ken

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God so values free will that He gave us all the freedom to turn our back on even Him. If liberty is that important to God, it should be that important to us all...
 
Actually, since neither candidate would have the required 270 electoral votes, the race would be decided by a vote in the House of Representatives, as in the case of a tie.

I believe this actually happened once, in the early to mid 1800's. There was a strong third-party candidate, and none of the candidates were able to get a majority of the electoral votes. The race was settled in the House of Representatives. I believe the candidate who had a plurality of the popular vote, but ended up loosing the election, was Andrew Jackson. He came back 4 years later to win the presidency.

If this one goes to the House, each state gets one vote (i.e. each states delegation needs to decide who the state as a whole will vote for). I think Bush would win this vote, but as I am not sure of the precise distribution of Republicans vs. Democrats in the House, I cannot be sure of the outcome. Can anyone shed further light on this issue?
 
It also happened in 1876, I believe, when Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden squared off.

Tilden, a Democrat, won the popular vote, but was 1 short of an electoral majority.

Both candidates claimed to have won three Southern states, and other electoral votes were also disputed.

It wasn't until late January that Congress created a special board to mediate the disputed votes.

In a bit of very interesting wrangling and some good luck, the Republicans won control of the board and cast all 20 of the contested votes to Hayes.

The Democrats attempted to filibuster on the floor of the Senate to keep the results from being adopted (thus helping clear the way for Hayes to be President), so the Republicans offered a deal:

If the Democrats would drop opposition to Hayes becoming president, the Republicans would move quickly to end Reconstruction and would provide a bunch of other perks.

Hayes was inaugurated as President, and reconstruction ended.

Similar events have happened before, as well.

In the election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr both gained 73 electoral votes, John Adams had 65, and several other candidates had lesser amounts.

The election went to the House, which finally elected Jefferson president.

Under the rules then in place, the person with the second highest total of electoral votes, Aaron Burr, became vice president.

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Smith & Wesson is dead to me.

If you want a Smith & Wesson, buy USED!
 
I'm pretty sure I heard on the news last night..., that if the vote went to the house, the winner would have to have a 26 vote majority to take the Presidency. Otherwise, the vote goes to the senate..., then, I forget where the vote goes after that....
 
I thought congress only got involved if the electoral college was tied in *its* votes?

Heck, if you're right then Gore can't steal the election by sitting on his hands...

Sheesh, that's a relief - I was a bit worried there for a bit.

Thanks!

Ken

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God so values free will that He gave us all the freedom to turn our back on even Him. If liberty is that important to God, it should be that important to us all...
 
I posted this in another thread, but it seems pertinant to this as well

This is the text from the 12th Amendment:

The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed

If Florida is not able to APPOINT their 25 Electors by Dec 18 to vote then there would only be 513 APPOINTED Electors, not 538. Currently Gore has 260 Electoral votes and the winner would only need 257, the majority of half of the APPOINTED 513. I am sure that every means will be taken to appoint the 25 people by Dec 18, to not do so would be a case of the people of Florida not being represented and that would not be fair. It is an interesting concept though should Gore be able to keep the 25 votes tied up in court for the next 5 weeks.
 
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