Laurence Tribe: A helpful guide to the next few days

[Nevilledog]

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Laurence Tribe
@tribelaw
A helpful guide to the next few days

What to Watch for on Election Night
The states that matter to the Electoral College count—and the chaos that may follow.
thebulwark.com

https://thebulwark.com/what-to-watch-for-on-election-night/

It would be so much simpler in so many ways if we chose our presidents by popular vote. There would be no elections decided by 500 bitterly contested votes in Florida after a Republican majority on the U.S. Supreme Court truncated the count. There would be none determined by a handful of demographically unrepresentative states which, all too often, reflect a bewildering mix of idiosyncratic election laws, parochial issues, and race-based voter suppression.

We wouldn’t worry about a squeaker decided by which party controls more congressional delegations. We wouldn’t wonder if the election of 2020 will be resolved by a Supreme Court so recently graced by a Republican justice rushed through the Republican Senate, and already tilted by the GOP’s stonewalling of a qualified Democratic nominee in 2016. We wouldn’t fret over “faithless electors.”

Nor do these vagaries reflect some higher principle designed for a country of 330 million diverse souls stretched across a vast continent and 50 states. Rather, they reflect a haphazard compromise cobbled together 233 years ago, to satisfy the less than 4 million white citizens of 13 prickly states strung along what is now America’s East Coast—including those determined to preserve the fruits of human slavery.

Hence this essay—my effort to guide readers through our arcane electoral map on an election night further complicated by the fallout from a very modern and deadly pandemic.

1. Reading the Electoral Map

The basic math of the Electoral College is easy. There are 538 electoral votes; to win the presidency a candidate must garner a bare majority—270. What can become difficult is charting the various combinations among a half-dozen or so closely contested states which could yield the next president—hopefully without the dubious assistance of state legislatures, Congress, or the courts.

*snip*

[SharonClark]

1. Thanks for posting.

[Nevilledog]

2. ...

[Wounded Bear]

3. Scary in sections, but a good read...nt

[Nevilledog]

4. That kinda explains life right now: scary in sections.

[Wounded Bear]

5. Indeed! nt

[world wide wally]

6. Let the people vote on it

Then add up the votes.
Simple as that.

[Wednesdays]

7. There is lots of good info, so I'm bookmarking...but--

The article ends with a doomsday scenario that I don't think is very likely.