Congress Accepts All Electoral Votes as Cast, Including the Seven Votes for Persons Other than Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton

On January 6, Congress tallied the electoral votes that had been cast in state capitols on December 19. Congress accepted all the votes as cast, including the seven votes cast for persons other than Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. See this story. There had been some talk that some members of Congress might try to object to the votes cast for persons other than Trump and Clinton.

Seven individuals received electoral college votes for president, the most since 1796.

2016 had more electoral college votes (for president) for persons who had not won the election in that state, in all U.S. history.

Meanwhile, lawsuits over whether electors have a constitutional right to vote for the person of their choice are pending in U.S. District Courts in California, Colorado, and Washington. There is also a Minnesota case pending in the Eighth Circuit, Abdurrahman v Dayton, 16-4551. It had been filed by Democratic elector Muhammad Abdurrahman on December 19, 2016, the very day the electoral college was meeting. The U.S. District Court dismissed the case because of laches, because it was filed so late. The U.S. District Court order of December 23 said that the cases in the other states had all been filed before the electoral college met, which the judge said is what Abdurrahman should have done.

Kansas Bill to Improve Ballot Access in Special U.S. House Elections

Kansas Representative Keith Esau (R-Olathe) has introduced HB 2017, to vastly improve ballot access in Kansas special U.S. House elections. Current law does not make it possible for a qualified convention party to enter a nominee in such elections, and requires independent candidates to submit approximately 17,000 valid signatures. Here is the bill’s text.

The bill makes it possible for all qualified parties to nominate someone by convention, and lowers the independent petition to exactly 1,000 signatures. The bill has a hearing January 10 in the House Elections Committee. Thanks to Rob Hodgkinson for this news.

Ohio City Councilmember May Have Lost his Seat, Due to Having Become a Presidential Elector

The city charter for Kettering, Ohio, says that city council members must not hold any other public office. One of the members of the Kettering city council, Robert L. Scott, was an Ohio presidential elector. Now a taxpayer in Kettering is suggesting that Scott must resign from the city council, and the taxpayer hints that he will sue if Scott does not resign. See this press release. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

Constitutional Amendment to Eliminate Electoral College Introduced into New Congress

On January 5, Congressman Steve Cohen (D-Tennessee) introduced a new constitutional amendment to abolish the electoral college. U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer had introduced one a few weeks ago, but that went into the outgoing congress, whereas Cohen has now put the proposal into the new congress. Check back here on Friday to see the text.

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