[ExI] Electoral College

[Adrian Tymes]

On Fri, Aug 17, 2018 at 9:17 AM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:
> This is a lot of why I have long been opposed to "...the equipment being
> used to run them..."  Such equipment should not exist.  Paper ballots,
> filled in with ink pens

...can be burned or shredded.  For all their other flaws, electronic
ballots are at least easier to secure from destruction: just make and
distribute lots of copies, far more widely than the destroyers can
follow up on.

> >..."We have received legitimate terrorist threats against every polling
> station.  They're all closed.  Anyone ignoring this order will be arrested
> for endangering public safety."
>
> Fortunately presidents do not make law and do not make orders of this kind.

Yes they do.  It's called martial law.  The (unverifiable and
evidenceless) claim about terrorism would get it counted as "rebellion
or invasion" for purposes of getting constitutional authority.

> I can assure you, if the current POTUS (whose name I cannot recall at the
> moment) were to declare martial law to stop an election, that election would
> go right on ahead right on schedule.  I already know how it would come out
> under those circumstances: his opponent would take every state.

In California, New England, and other blue areas, sure - if the state
militias could keep away that portion of the national armed forces
that follow orders to put a stop to it.  Too many of the red states
would go right along with it, knowing that not having an election
would make irrelevant the votes of states that had one.

> Presidents cannot stop elections.  They would if they could.

No prior president has wanted to carry on a presidency in the current
fashion.  There have only been a few dozen presidents so far.  Even
Nixon ultimately resigned.