I love commenters who bring things I didn't know about! So lets do a thread on this together and find out what happened!
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https://twitter.com/Troop4trutH/status/1344788159293390849
So, the story does hold up, a quick google search brings us to this SCOTUS Amicus Brief, which tells us how to find the actual records about what they discussed!
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supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/1…
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supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/1…
Now we go to the Congressional Globe for the official records of the debate.
I highly recommend going to the middle of this page and start reading from the point I've marked out. It's quite titillating stuff! But I will summarize the important bits
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memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage…
I highly recommend going to the middle of this page and start reading from the point I've marked out. It's quite titillating stuff! But I will summarize the important bits
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memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage…
So we are looking for what was the reasoning behind the decision to count the votes. This debate did last two days, but the important part, the mindset of the VP is explained up front.
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The Presiding Officer (acting VP) Notice how right off the bat the VP says that there is nothing to be done about the electors! He says that they have to be counted.
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Mr H Marshall makes the note that under the Constitution, the only role for the VP is to open and count the votes!
And then he states there needs to be a way to resolve these contested cases!
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And then he states there needs to be a way to resolve these contested cases!
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Back to the VP: he himself makes the point that his only role is to OPEN and the votes be counted..
Right there, you know that even in 1856, the VP did NOT have any authority to change electors.
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Right there, you know that even in 1856, the VP did NOT have any authority to change electors.
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The Vice President "Considers that the only duty imposed by the Constitution was, that the vote should be counted".
Again, we have another historical situation that proves that Pence CANNOT change the votes.
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Again, we have another historical situation that proves that Pence CANNOT change the votes.
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Vice President: "the only functions to be discharged" by the Vice President is to "open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted".
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I just love this little moment, that in all the debate, the tellers forgot to make out the certificates, and they put "laughter" in the official record!
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Summary:
Once again, the very historical situation put forward by Trump's supporters again completely destroys the notion that the Constitution grants the Vice President the power to set aside votes!
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Once again, the very historical situation put forward by Trump's supporters again completely destroys the notion that the Constitution grants the Vice President the power to set aside votes!
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I highly recommend you read several pages of this document; not only do you get a good sense of why the Electoral Count Act was necessary, but you can see the interpretation of the Constitution at the time is exactly on par with ours today.
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@BenVAllison How did I do in the historical department?
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