As much of western North Carolina continues to recover from massive flooding caused by Hurricane Helen, Republican lawmakers effectively cancel the state’s presidential election and declare Donald Trump the winner. He suggested that this “makes a lot of sense.”
In fact, that’s not the case, and state legislatures don’t actually have such authority.
politiko report Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) said Thursday that the North Carolina General Assembly is moving voters to avoid disenfranchising voters who may not have been able to vote in flood-hit areas. He said people should be prepared to override their will.
“It just seemed like a power play,” Harris said, according to the recording. Posted “to X” by Ivan Reichlin, a Trump supporter who advocated for state lawmakers to take control of electoral votes. “It’s legal in North Carolina. There are a lot of people who can’t vote, and it could make a difference in the state.”
Elsewhere in the same video, Harris says the move is justified because “you know what that vote is probably going to be.”
Oh, no, it’s not. And since it looks like a power play, that’s exactly what it will be.
There are many reasons why someone may not vote on Election Day (or through the early voting or absentee voting process). Both proceedings are underway in areas of North Carolina affected by Hurricane Helen. Some people choose not to vote. Others may never get used to it. Rainy weather reduces voter turnout. In rare cases, a major natural disaster occurs right before an election.
That doesn’t matter. As Harris suggests here, it doesn’t give state legislators the power to decide “what that vote is likely to be” if someone doesn’t vote. You can’t count votes that don’t exist.
This is (small-d) democratic (small-r) republican political system, it seems absurd to even point it out.
Thankfully, after the 2020 election, Congress acted to block some of the tools available to state legislatures to override legally tabulated results. Richard Pildes, a professor of law at New York University, said: Point it out in your post in Election law blogThe Electoral Count Reform Act, passed in 2022, removed a long-standing federal provision that allowed state lawmakers to appoint electors if they deemed the presidential election “failed.”
“Furthermore, even if a natural disaster causes a major disruption to a state’s election process, federal law currently requires that the solution must: Popularity vote That will happen after voting becomes possible again,” Pildes said. I will write. “Federal law leaves it up to state law, and state election emergency law (in states with such laws), to determine the appropriate authority and procedures in these situations.”
So, no, the North Carolina General Assembly cannot simply hand Trump the state’s 16 electoral votes by saying the election “failed” because of the storm. At least not without challenging the new federal law.
Still, Harris’ comments suggest that in the run-up to the 2024 election, some Republicans are not only considering anti-Democratic maneuvers by state lawmakers, but are actively seeking opportunities for such shenanigans. Suggests.
Back in August, Vice President Kamala Harris was calling for tighter regulation of grocery store prices. washington post Columnist Katherine Rampel made a joke “When your opponent calls you a ‘communist,’ it might be better not to propose price controls.”
The same could be said about Andy Harris and other Republicans considering this type of effort. When your opponents are accusing you of trying to subvert democracy, you might not suggest that it makes “a lot of sense” to ignore the will of the voters.
