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The vaccine arrived. The first needles went into American arms in multiple hospitals, with more to come.
Constitutional democracy worked. Electoral College votes were peaceably cast in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, affirming Joe Biden's victory despite President Donald Trump's best efforts to overturn the results.
For all the antiquated weirdness of the baroque US Electoral College system, it was reassuring to see the process play out Monday with electors carrying out the will of the people, though there were unusual circumstances. Nevada conducted its vote virtually because of Covid. Arizona held its count at an undisclosed location, fearing violence. Other states shuttled electors in side entrances.
But it was the latest and most definitive indication that the system is stronger than the president. In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who was the subject of a Covid-shutdown-related kidnap plot earlier this year, gave a stirring speech at her state's Electoral College event, noting the vaccine.
And Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield stripped a fellow Republican of committee assignments over threats of violence connected to the Electoral College vote. Chatfield said in a statement that he feared losing the country if he ignored the will of voters. "I fought hard for President Trump. Nobody wanted him to win more than me," he said. "I think he's done an incredible job. But I love our republic, too. I can't fathom risking our norms, traditions and institutions to pass a resolution retroactively changing the electors for Trump, simply because some think there may have been enough widespread fraud to give him the win."
Another Michigan Republican, Rep. Paul Mitchell, officially said he will leave the GOP over Trump's refusal to accept the election outcome. "It is unacceptable for political candidates to treat our election system as though we are a third-world nation and incite distrust of something so basic as the sanctity of our vote," he said in a letter announcing the move.
Light at the end of the tunnel
2020 started with a near-war with Iran, which you probably don't even remember, moved to an impeachment that seems like a distant memory, plunged into a pandemic and wrapped up with a sitting US President trying to stage what would have effectively been a coup to end-run around voters who rejected him.
It's not over. It's becoming difficult to find ways to quantify how many people have died from this disease. (Imagine that the city of Pittsburgh was struck by a nuclear weapon or natural disaster and every single person who lives in the city died. That's how many people have died from Covid in the US.)
We'll continue to report about holes in the vaccine delivery system, holdups in other vaccines, the difficulties of reopening society and schools. Even after you get the vaccine, probably in 2021, you'll still need to wear a mask. But Monday saw science win out over fear, and democracy win over conspiracy.
Trump will not stop now
We'll also continue to report, as ever, on the rattling end of the Trump administration.
He will continue to try to subvert the vote, although his options are closing every day.
Moments after California's electors affirmed his election loss and Biden's win, Trump announced the resignation of Attorney General William Barr. Barr has often allowed the Justice Department to appear extremely political, but Trump has expressed frustration at Barr for not doing more to legitimize crazy theories of election fraud or investigations targeting Biden's son Hunter. Get the latest here.
How will Congress settle electoral vote challenges?
Readers submitted thousands of questions to CNN about the Electoral College system.
They ranged from how electors are selected and who an individual state's electors are to very in-depth technical questions. (My thanks here to CNN's political unit and Adam Levy for always having answers ready.)
My favorite of these came from a woman named Cathy in Hawaii, because it spoke to one of the key ambiguities of how the votes are counted and, perhaps, presaged the next little drama Republicans will engineer to find a way around voters.
Cathy in Hawaii: I am seeing conflicting information about what happens if conditions are met that require the two chambers of Congress to meet separately to consider a challenge by a congressional member to the results of the Electoral College's reported results. One reports that each chamber would then meet separately from the other to consider, then vote, with each senator and each representative having one vote, whether to support the challenge or not. In this scenario, Joe Biden would likely prevail. The other reports that each chamber would do the same EXCEPT in the House each state will have only one vote, not each representative -- which would mean Trump would likely prevail. Which is correct? And would you provide a link to the description of this process of the laws covering such a possibility in our Constitution?
WHAT MATTERS: Thank you for this very detailed and incredibly important technical question. Let me start at the end, where you ask for specific links to US law. Here's a link to Title 3, section 15, of US Code, "Counting Electoral Votes in Congress," which is about as impenetrable legalese as you're likely to see.
To your point, let me clarify the smart issue you're raising:
- It is expected that House Republicans will object to the electoral vote count after it takes place January 6. After the votes are counted by Vice President Mike Pence -- in his capacity as president of the Senate -- and he announces the winner, lawmakers have the ability to raise objections.
- If a senator joins in one or more of these objections, then the House and Senate go to their respective chambers and consider the objections.
- If both chambers sustain the objections, a state's electors could be discarded.
Then, the House picks. Ultimately, if electoral votes cast today are rejected this way, and as a result Biden doesn't get 270 electoral votes, then the House picks the next president. And, as you note, House members would vote as state delegations in this process to pick the President -- 50 total votes.
How does the House vote on objections? The question is about the objections by which Republicans would seek votes to discard electoral votes. In these votes, would they vote as state delegations or as members of Congress? If they vote as states, that benefits Republicans, who control more state delegations. If they vote as individuals, with 435 total votes, that benefits Democrats, since they hold a majority in the House.
The answer is that they would vote as individual members and Democrats should be able to defeat any objection.
Here's why: There's precedent. While the law linked above does not say specifically how members of Congress would vote, these objections about electoral votes have been raised twice before, and in both instances the House voted as a 435-member body, according to footnotes in this Congressional Research Service report. In 1969, an objection was raised about a faithless elector who voted for George Wallace. The House and Senate both considered it and the House voted as a 435-member body. In 2004, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio -- both Democrats -- objected to the electoral votes from the decisive state of Ohio. Again, the House voted as a 435-member body.
Plus, not all Republicans will follow Trump. It's not at all clear how many Republicans in either the House or the Senate would vote to ignore voters and prop up a second Trump administration. In 2005, for instance, only 31 House members voted to sustain the objection from Boxer and Tubbs Jones. That means many Democrats accepted the reelection of George W. Bush. The inverse would almost certainly happen this year, with Republicans accepting Biden's win. In the Senate, numerous Republicans have already acknowledged Biden's victory. And because Georgia's two Senate seats will be vacant on January 6 -- that state's runoff isn't until January 5 -- it would take only one Republican -- Mitt Romney? Susan Collins? -- to affirm Biden's win in the Senate and put him in the White House.
I also got to look into:
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December 15, 2020 at 10:01AM
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A shot in the arm for the country and for democracy - CNN
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