Daily Archives: 10 December 2020

Mistaken

Posted on by
Reply

Georgia’s Governor Brian Kemp and Lt Governor Geoff Duncan are refusing to convene a special session of the State’s General Assembly for the purpose of generating a legislative slate of Presidential electors in lieu of that nominally generated by the Georgia voters and an unknown number of illegitimate voters. Kemp and Duncan are grasping at straws, too, for their rational.

While we understand four members of the Georgia Senate are requesting the convening of a special session of the General Assembly, doing this in order to select a separate slate of presidential electors is not an option that is allowed under state or federal law.

This is where Kemp and Duncan are mistaken under the supreme Law of the Land, our Constitution. Here’s Art II, Sect 1:

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….

The General Assembly is well within Constitutional bounds to pick its own set of Electors. Furthermore, the State being the sole selector of Electors, there then can be no conflicting slates of Electors for a sitting Vice President to choose between. The selections are who the State says it is, whether is specifies those selected by the voters or those selected by the General Assembly.

The matter of such an act being contrary to State law is purely a non sequitur. States are allowed to change their laws; none of them are written in adamantine once enacted.

The political cost of the General Assembly appointing its own lot of Electors is a separate matter.

Who’s Eligible to Vote?

Posted on by
Reply

Recall the Georgia runoff elections for two Federal Senate seats and the parallel efforts by both parties to register new voters—including encouraging folks from out of State to become citizens of the State and register to vote on that 5 Jan 21 election day.

Here’s Tracy Beanz of UncoverDC.com:

In reading the GA constitution, it appears that newly registered voters should NOT be eligible to vote in the runoff election.

Here’s the Georgia Constitution.  Here’s Section II, Paragraph II of that Constitution, which deals explicitly with runoff elections (some folks really do plan ahead):

Paragraph II. Run-off election. A run-off election shall be a continuation of the general election and only persons who were entitled to vote in the general election shall be entitled to vote therein; and only those votes cast for the persons designated for the runoffs shall be counted in the tabulation and canvass of the votes cast.

Thus, any citizen of Georgia who hadn’t registered to vote in the 3 Nov 20 election, and so wasn’t entitled to vote then, doesn’t seem entitled to vote in the continuation (runoff) election, even if he registers now.

That would seem to leave all the Johnny-Come-Latelies now entering the State to register and vote on 5 Jan still ineligible to vote on 5 Jan, although they can register to their heart’s content and vote in other, separate, elections in 2021. If they hang around and don’t leave (which latter could expose them to felony charges for violating Georgia election laws).