Tea at Trianon: ‘Safe Harbor’ Deadline For Electors ‘Not Constitutional’, ‘Does Not Apply To Disputed States’

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, December 11, 2020

‘Safe Harbor’ Deadline For Electors ‘Not Constitutional’, ‘Does Not Apply To Disputed States’

From The National Pulse:

Among the states with disputed election results are Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, and Pennsylvania: a total 79 of Electoral College votes.

The Amistad Project notes that the only “deadline specifically required by the Constitution is noon on January 20,” when a President’s term would end.

All other deadlines, such as the “safe harbor” deadline of December 8th, the Electoral College vote occurring on December 14th, and the congressional count on January 6th are set by federal law. Therefore, if “federal law presents an obstacle to faithfully adhering to constitutional requirements, it is necessary to disregard the statute in favor of the plain meaning of the Constitution.”

In other words, the only deadline the Constitution requires is for the election to be decided on or by January 20th.

“Moreover, these dates are arbitrary, being based on obsolete and outdated concerns,” the group adds.

To highlight the subjectivity of Electoral College deadlines, the white paper notes the historical changes of election-related dates:
In 1789 electors were appointed on the first Wednesday of January, electors met on the first Wednesday in February, and the Electoral vote was tabulated by a joint session of Congress on the first Wednesday of March. For over half a century, from 1792 until 1844, electors had to be appointed any time within the 34 days before the first Wednesday in December, and the electors met and voted on the first Wednesday in December. For 139 years, in every election between 1792 and 1932 except the 1876 election, the Electoral vote was tabulated by Congress on the second Wednesday in February. For 44 years, between 1888 and 1932, the Electors met and voted on the second Monday in January.
A single national day for appointing electors wasn’t established until 1848. (Read more.)