They’ve said it out loud. Heritage foundation guy has been saying we’re in the middle of a bloodless coup, bloodless if the left allows it.

The historian, Heather Cox Richardson, can walk you though the legal channels for an election steal, provided the Speaker of the House is on board. I’m not going to dig to find it again. She’s on YouTube.

This is going to be like Roe, isn’t it? Where people know exactly what’s about to happen then act surprised when it does.

I think the Republicans screwed themselves bit here. With the Supreme Court decision giving the president immunity for official Acts, Biden could just throw all those fuckers in jail as an official act for trying to stage a coup and that would give the presidency to Harris.

The reason it didn't happen line this last time is that the legislators and Governors whose job it is to certify the EC electors also get their job through elections. Some of them may have been re-elected on the very same ballot. If they start playing games and saying that now, despite a clear victory by one side, they can't affirm that victory, it will call into question their own electoral legitimacy.

One yo-yo suggested this in NC a few weeks ago - that after the hurricane, voting would be such a difficult chore that they should just skip the Presidential election and give Trump all their EC votes, and that idea was quickly given the mocking it deserved.

State and local election officials, of every party, take pride in conducting their elections in a fair manner, and reporting results on time. The distributed nature of our elections is actually an asset here, because each state governs their own elections locally, necessitating schemes like this to be duplicated in each state theyare intended for. And the "safe harbor" provisions function to make sure that as long as certification is done on time, there is very little that Congress can do other than count them . At least, I hope....

"Preventing this scenario requires Republicans to act in good faith and certify the results of elections that go against their guy."

And this is where Speaker Johnson becomes critical to the whole “secret” plan. In 2020, Nancy Pelosi was speaker of the House. If states had tried to get cute and not submit their electors by the December 11 deadline, Pelosi would just have extended the deadline. But Speaker Johnson surely won’t. If electors are not submitted by December 11, he’ll likely declare the process “over” and say that the electors appointed by that date are the only ones allowed to vote for president.

Isn't Speaker Johnson subject to recall? Maybe it's time that happened.

It would be worth looking into which states have wording in their Constitutions that include "shall certify" which would make the stalling tactic a crime.

Also, anyone who voted in a state whose electors were not sent on time would have a valid civil rights case against that state's officials and they would all have standing because they were personally harmed. The number of potential lawsuits would be overwhelming and perhaps ruinous to anyone found guilty. Not sure that fear of that would be enough to stop them, but also they have to worry about losing their next election (though if it worked they might hope to be rewarded by the winning administration).

I was worried when there was one possibility, but now that there are two?

There Will Be Blood. Let's drink the fascists' milkshake.

Scary shit

Quick! Vote!

I don't understand. Isn't it the VP who certifies the results, anyway? Or does it pass down to Speaker, since she's running?

Why don't we just force runoff elections when things are off. It costs a few million, yes. But isn't it better for people to decide instead of one judge?