Top lawyers from the Amistad Project confirmed in a white paper
that Electoral College deadlines touted by the media are simply
arbitrary.
In a white paper released last week, the Amistad Project from
the non-partisan Thomas More Society, argued that because the
deadlines set for the Electoral College are only set by federal
law, not the Constitution, then states who are questioning the
results of the election would have the right to ignore them if they
so chose when investigating irregularities.
As noted in an analysis piece from
Revolver News, federal law currently requires state
legislatures to have chosen their Electors by the Monday after the
second Wednesday in December (December 14th this year). If they
have “failed to make a choice on the day prescribed by law,”
then “the electors may be appointed on a subsequent day in such a
manner as the legislature of such State may direct.”
The piece by Revolver suggested that even with the deadlines,
the states could take control of their Electoral College votes.
However,
the white paper from the Amistad Project goes even further, and
argues that the only deadline set for the Electoral College is that
of the 4 year term limit mandated by the Constitution.
Two limits are noted by the Amistad Project: The aforementioned
Electoral College meeting date, and the “safe harbour” limit,
which is December 8. They argue in the white paper that the basis
for these dates was “to provide enough time to affect the
presidential transition of power, a concern which is fully obsolete
in the age of internet and air travel.”
The legislation therefore does not give the states enough time
to fulfill their “constitutional and ethical obligation to hold
free and fair elections.” The paper refers to the 1876 election,
where three states sent two sets of Electoral Votes, one for each
candidate, and due to the confusion, Congress passed legislation
that bypassed the usual deadlines, allowing for time to correct the
states that were in dispute.
“Through rigorous investigations supporting our litigation, we
demonstrate that state and local officials brazenly violated
election laws in several swing states in order to advance a
partisan political agenda,”
said�Phill Kline, Director of The Amistad Project. “As a
result, it is impossible for those states to determine their
presidential Electors in line with the arbitrary deadline set forth
via federal statute in 1948, and thus, the only deadline that
matters is January 20, 2021.â€
The white paper concludes that states should appoint their
Electors as “expeditiously as possible,†but they should not
need to obey the arbitrary deadlines set by federal law.
