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zataomm  4mo ago (text post)   5351 thread views

Colorado Supreme Court Thread

Link to the decision

I don't know to what extent there are established precedents for when a topic is worthy of a mega-thread, but this decision seems like a big deal to me with a lot to discuss, so I'm putting this thread here as a place for discussion. If nobody agrees then I guess they just won't comment.

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What’s supposed to happen if an ineligible candidate wins a state?

Let’s say a write-in candidate wins due to a generational gap. Turns out the last Silents were the only thing holding back fascism, and now Hitler has the plurality in Colorado. What gives?

  • Votes for an ineligible candidate aren’t counted.
  • Votes for an ineligible candidate are counted, but electors are bound to choose the highest eligible count.
  • As above, but electors aren’t bound at all, and can pick Hitler anyway.
  • Electors are bound to pick the highest count, regardless of eligibility, but the US Senate won’t sign and certify votes for ineligible candidates.
  • As above, but the Senate certifies the results; ineligibility only matters after tallying the final result.
  • As above, but the seat gets filled by the VP instead of the Presidential runner-up, since this is “the case of the death or other constitutional disability” from the 12th amendment.

This is a genuine question. Article II doesn’t say anything about faithless or stupid electors, and it certainly doesn’t say anything about the state population picking a dead man. If there’s something in the 14th or in the 12th, I missed it.

Let’s say a write-in candidate wins due to a generational gap. Turns out the last Silents were the only thing holding back fascism, and now Hitler has the plurality in Colorado.

That can’t happen. Colorado won’t count unapproved write-ins. You can write ‘Mickey mouse’ on the ballot, it’s just an abstention.

Seems kind of ill-advised that they're calling attention to the system being, "you can vote for whoever you want, as long as they're one of the state-approved choices". Then again, everything about this seems ill-advised, but here we are.

First off, I don't believe the 14A prohibits Trump (at least not on the facts as they stand today).

That said, the 14A was adopted by the voters and controls. You can vote for whoever you want but you cannot vote for people that a supermajority has not deemed eligible.

The same could be true for voting for Arnold or for a 30 year old.

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