Thursday, November 22, 2012

Reading the Constitution is hard, if you're a teabagger

Closeup of the U.S. Constitution Reading comprehension is hard for teabaggers Teabaggers don't like democracy, and neither does World Net Daily, giving a platform to shit like this from the founder of Tea Party Nation:
According to the 12th Amendment, for the Electoral College to be able to select the president, it must have a quorum of two-thirds of the states voting. If enough states refuse to participate, the Electoral College will not have a quorum. If the Electoral College does not have a quorum or otherwise cannot vote or decide, then the responsibility for selecting the president and vice president devolves to the Congress [...]

Mitt Romney carried 24 states. We need to have conservative activists from all over the nation contact the electors, the Republican Party and the secretary of state in all of these states and tell them not to participate in the Electoral College when it meets on Dec. 17.

If we can get 17 of those states (just over one-third) to refuse to participate, the Electoral College will have no quorum. Then, as the Constitution directs, the election goes to the House of Representatives.

That's, um, a rather novel theory. Here's the relevant portion of the 12th Amendment dealing with the electors:
The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and all persons voted for as Vice-President and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate.

The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted.

See anything about a quorum? No? That's because you're sane, educated, rational and not an idiot.

The Amendment has further procedures in case of a tie, which then kicks the decision to Congress. And like anything else that Congress does, it requires a quorum.

So World Net Daily posts that ridiculous column and they all pat themselves on the back about their wonderful plan to subvert American democracy when, uh oh ...

Since this column was posted it has been discovered that the premise presented about the Electoral College and the Constitution is in error. According to the 12th Amendment, a two-thirds quorum is required in the House of Representatives, not the Electoral College.
Ah good, someone over there finally read the Constitution! Let's consider that progress in the right direction.


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