President Donald J. Trump, joined by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, talks to members of the press on the South Lawn of the White House Wednesday, July 29, 2020, prior to boarding Marine One to begin his trip to Texas. (Official White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)
The movement by state legislators, who are designated by the U.S. Constitution as the ones who must designate Electoral College votes from their states, to claw back that power is gaining momentum.
A resolution proposed by lawmakers in Pennsylvania was just finished and explains that "numerous illegal acts" in the 2020 election have been "ignored" by the governor, secretary of state and certain election officials.
So, the lawmakers propose that the General Assembly "takes back and reserves the power to designate presidential electors for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the December 2020 meeting of the Electoral College and withdraws any prior statement or direction to the contrary given by the General Assembly or any other official or body."
There now are two states where this movement is developing. Just this week a lawmaker in Arizona announced plans to reclaim control over the appointment of Electoral College electors – and for whom they cast their votes later this month.
The most recent commitment was made by Arizonan Rep. Mark Finchem during a hearing on vote fraud that was held on Monday.
The National File reports he said, "We are clawing our Electoral College votes back, we will not release them. That's what I'm calling our colleagues in both the House and the Senate to do. Exercise our plenary authority under the U.S. Constitution."
That founding document actually assigns to state legislators the authority to determine the procedures for casting state Electoral College votes, the body that meets in December to actually elect a president.
Most states have set up procedures to simply assign those electors based on the outcome of the popular vote, but that is not required.
Several constitutional experts have pointed out that state lawmakers have great latitude in determining their electors, and for whom they vote, if they have evidence of vote fraud or other misbehavior.
“Rep. Finchem, issued a call to withhold the state’s Electoral College votes, as he believes there is enough significant evidence of fraud to invalidate the state’s votes” #ArizonaHearing #StopTheSteaI2020 @MarkFinchem @NationalFile @ali @michellemalkin https://t.co/qqLPFq4UFM
— Paul Gosar (@DrPaulGosar) November 30, 2020
It was only days earlier that a Pennsylvania state legislator said he and his colleagues planned to assert their constitutional authority to name the electors to the Electoral College.
Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano Mastriano, a retired U.S. Army colonel, said in an intervew with Steve Bannon's "War Room" that members of the Pennsylvania House and Senate were working on a joint resolution to "grab back" their constitutional authority from the secretary of state that was ceded in 1938, the Gateway Pundit reported.
The now-completed Pennsylvania resolution notes that state law requires mail-in ballots to be in by 8 p.m. on Election Day, and for all signatures to be authenticated.
But the state this year used "satellite locations," and the state Supreme Court made other changes to the state's election laws, only weeks before the election.
The resolution has additional pages of election process defects that lawmakers have identified. Litigation followed because of the anomalous vote pattern, in which President Trump's lead of some 700,000 votes evaporated with the introduction of vote "dumps" after polls closed, in which Joe Biden was given in excess of 95% of the votes.
The resolution explains that recognizing the "irregularities," and disapproving of the "infringement on the General Assembly's sole authority" regarding electors, and rejecting the "premature" certification of election results, the lawmaking body "takes back and reserves the power to designate presidential electors for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the December 2020 meeting of the Electoral College and withdraws any prior statement or direction to the contrary…"
The interview with Mastriano:
The media have credited to Joe Biden enough Electoral College votes to be president. But that's not official until the Electoral College votes. And if enough states withhold their votes, it could be that neither candidate would gain the required 270 to be elected president.
In that case, the Constitution provides that the U.S. House elects a president, with each state getting one vote, in a House that has a majority of the delegations controlled by Republicans.
Alongside Finchem was U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., who was in attendance in a show of solidarity with supporters of President Donald Trump.
It probably would take Arizona, Pennsylvania and one other state to withhold Electoral College votes for the presidential race to be turned over to the U.S. House.
WND reported two constitutional-law experts, William J. Olson and Patrick M. McSweeney, have explained that Republican-controlled state legislatures that the authority to appoint slates of Republican electors to the Electoral College if the voters chose the Democratic candidate.
That could happen if there is evidence of fraud and other remedies are not available.
"During the 2020 presidential election, many of the so-called swing states, including Arizona, saw unprecedented – and unlawful – erosions of procedural safeguards as well as administration irregularities on Election Day," the constitutional experts have explained. "People deserve an honest accounting of who won. … With respect to identifying and remediating fraudulent or mistaken results, it is now or never, whatever can be done must be done.
"Legislators who want to carefully examine the election process, and take action if significant election fraud is found, would be simply giving effect to the vote of the people, not denying it."
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