According to recent polls, shown on the website http://www.realclearpolitics.com, Donald Trump is currently leading in battleground states such as Iowa, Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina, and Georgia; while incumbent President Joe Biden is leading in Virginia and Wisconsin.
If those trends continue until Election Day - such that the actual results of the Electoral College play out in the same fashion - then Biden will defeat
Trump by a narrow margin of 270 to 268 electoral votes (as shown below).
Map created by Joe Kopsick,
through the use of the mapping tool found at 270towin.com.
through the use of the mapping tool found at 270towin.com.
Click, and open in new tab and/or window,
and download if necessary, in order to view full-size.
However, if even one electoral vote can be swung away from Biden, and towards
Trump or any other candidate, then no candidate will receive the 270 votes
necessary to become president.
This would trigger a process prescribed by the 12th Amendment, in which the
House of Representatives would elect the president, with each state voting as a
single delegation, with 26 votes required to clear the simple majority.
But how could an electoral vote go to anyone other than Trump or Biden, without
any other candidate defeating Trump or Biden in any state?
There are 22 states in the Union which do not require states to submit their
electoral vote according to how the majority voted, and which do not have
processes providing for punishment of "faithless electors".
The states that do not punish faithless electors are shown below, in orange. (Source: http://archive.fairvote.org/?page=967)
The states that do not punish faithless electors are shown below, in orange. (Source: http://archive.fairvote.org/?page=967)
Map created by Joe Kopsick,
through the use of the mapping tool found at 270towin.com.
through the use of the mapping tool found at 270towin.com.
Click, and open in new tab and/or window,
and download if necessary, in order to view full-size.
The House would then be free to choose from among the top three recipients of
electoral votes from that first Electoral College election round.
To quote Amendment XII to the U.S. Constitution: “if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President.”
To quote Amendment XII to the U.S. Constitution: “if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President.”
For example, if neither Trump nor Hillary Clinton had received 270 electoral votes in 2016, and the number of faithless electors would have been the same, then the House would have been free to choose from among Trump; Hillary; and Colin Powell, who received three faithless electoral votes, more than any other candidate who received faithless electoral votes.
Map created by Joe Kopsick,
through the use of the mapping tool found at 270towin.com.
through the use of the mapping tool found at 270towin.com.
Click, and open in new tab and/or window,
and download if necessary, in order to view full-size.
Americans who are unfamiliar with how the 12th Amendment and Electoral College
work, must learn about this! It is the only way to inform mass numbers of
American voters that the re-election of Biden and Trump - and the election of
anyone other than the two most popular candidates in any presidential election
- is not inevitable.
You can learn more about what happens when no candidate receives a simple majority of the electoral votes, by watching the video found at the following address:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPA1C-q1Zho
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPA1C-q1Zho
There is another way! Please share this article with anyone and everyone you know who doesn't want to re-live and re-litigate the U.S. presidential election of 2020.
Originally written, and posted to Facebook, on January 25th, 2024.
Edited and expanded, and posted to this blog, on January 27th, 2024.
