These Three States Can Stop the Steal

It could hardly be more obvious that the Democrats approached the 2020 election willing to do anything, from illegally altering state election laws to committing brazen ballot fraud, in the cause of defeating President Trump. It’s equally clear that the “news” media are abetting this travesty by studiously ignoring credible evidence while anointing Joe Biden “President-elect.” This corrupt contingency is precisely why the framers created the Electoral College. No one becomes “President-elect” until the members of that body meet in their respective states to cast their ballots. Who selects the Electors? The Constitution unambiguously reserves the power and the method by which these appointees are chosen to state legislatures in Article II, Section I:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress.

Note that this clause omits any mention of officials not belonging to the legislatures. Nor does it mention courts. Moreover, the electors aren’t required to cast their ballots according to the outcome of the popular vote. To make sense of this, it must be remembered that these appointees aren’t chosen like juries. In most states, each political party selects a slate of electors from a pool of its activists. When the voters cast ballots in the general election, they are voting for the people listed on those party slates. If a majority of a state’s popular vote goes to the Republican ticket, the GOP slate of electors is certified and they elect the President on the Monday after the second Wednesday in December.

That the framers vested the legislatures with the sole power to choose electors is particularly important if there is reason to dispute the legitimacy of an election — as is the case in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan. In Georgia, for example, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the state’s county clerks conducted last week’s “risk-limiting audit” without any attempt to verify signatures on mail-in votes. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp chastised them, suggesting that the discovery of thousands of previously uncounted ballots — which reduced Biden’s ostensible lead by 1,200 votes — should have alerted them that there was a serious discrepancy. He instructed Raffensperger to fix it. Just the News reports:

It’s important to note that this audit only looked at ballots, not the signatures on the absentee applications or the signatures on the ballot envelopes.… The Georgians I have heard from are extremely concerned about this, so I encourage Secretary Raffensperger to consider addressing these concerns. It seems simple enough to conduct a sample audit of signatures on the absentee ballot envelopes and compare those to the signatures on applications and on file at the Secretary of State’s Office.… This is simply unacceptable. I have heard directly from countless Georgians. They expect better, and they deserve better.

Yet Raffensperger certified the election results early Friday, despite the audit’s glaring deficiencies. Erroneous media reports notwithstanding, this is by no means game over, however. Indeed, it will be the cause of action in a federal lawsuit to be filed at the beginning of the week by a team of Trump lawyers led by Jordan Sekulow. During an interview with Newsmax TV Sekulow said, “I will tell you, the Lt. Gov. [Geoff Duncan] in Georgia, the Secretary of State in Georgia [Brad Raffensperger], they’re in for quite a shock on Monday and Tuesday about how poorly they ran — there’s going to be a proof — of how poorly they ran the elections in one of their major counties.”

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis are about to file an appeal in the Third Circuit after an arbitrary dismissal by an Obama-appointed judge of an election challenge. Ellis and Giuliani presented evidence demonstrating that 682,777 ballots in the Keystone State were cast illegally. The lawsuit argues that Pennsylvania voters were denied their constitutional right to equal protection under the law because counties used wildly varying vote counting methods. Not coincidentally, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Bush v. Gore was based on the Equal Protection Clause as it related to ballot counting. Saturday, Ellis and Giuliani released the following statement:

Today’s decision turns out to help us in our strategy to get expeditiously to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although we fully disagree with this opinion, we’re thankful to the Obama-appointed judge for making this anticipated decision quickly.… We will be seeking an expedited appeal to the Third Circuit. There is so much evidence that, in Pennsylvania, Democrats eliminated our opportunity to present 50 witnesses and other evidence that election officials blatantly ignored Pennsylvania’s law denying independent review.… This is another case that appears to be moving quickly to the United States Supreme Court.

In Michigan, as in Pennsylvania, judges are elected. Consequently, at least four major lawsuits challenging election results were arbitrarily dismissed without serious consideration. Even worse, when the Chair of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers (Monica Palmer) and another member of the board (William Hartmann) refused to certify the election results last week due to obvious and comprehensive irregularities, they were physically threatened, accused of racism, and doxed. They finally certified after Vice Chair Jonathan Kinloch agreed to an audit. Kinloch, being a Democrat, reneged on the deal, whereupon Palmer and Hartmann immediately issued affidavits rescinding their votes.

Considering the election chicanery, arbitrary court rulings, and threats to the county canvassers, President Trump invited Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and Speaker of the Michigan Statehouse Lee Chatfield to Washington to discuss the situation in Michigan. Like Palmer and Hartman, they were harassed by Democratic activists, media gadflies, and garden variety goons. These creeps also followed the Michigan delegation to their hotel. It will come as no surprise, considering how dangerous it is to go against the Democrat party line, that neither of these Michigan “leaders” were willing to consider doing the right thing. They released this pathetic statement:

The Senate and House Oversight Committees are actively engaged in a thorough review of Michigan’s elections process and we have faith in the committee process to provide greater transparency and accountability to our citizens. We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan’s electors, just as we have said throughout this election.

The GOP enjoys legislative majorities in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. In these states, election laws were flouted, ballot fraud was widespread, and election officials were threatened. If not for important deadlines like the safe harbor date (December 8) by which states must resolve post-election disputes such as recounts and the federally mandated date (December 14) on which the Electoral College must meet to vote, it would be theoretically possible for the Trump legal team to prevail. At this point, only state legislatures have the constitutional power and the time to stop the steal. Do they have the guts? If not, the survival of the republic comes down to a thin red line in … well … Georgia.

*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from American Spectator can be found here ***