No, because the 12th Amendment says a candidate needs to get “a majority of the whole number of electors appointed”.
If a state chooses not to appoint any electors, that reduces the number of electoral votes in total, and thus reduces what the candidate needs to win for a majority.
For example, in the 1860 election, all of the states appointed electors, so the total electoral colleges was 303. Majority was 152; Lincoln won 180 electoral votes.
But in the 1864 election, the States in rebellion did not appoint any electors. That meant the College was 233 votes, a majority was 117. Lincoln won 212.
So short answer: a state can’t sabotage the election by not playing.
I put those polls about suspending the election about on par with the polls about people leaving the country if X Politician wins the presidency. Sounds good when you’re thinking about it, but not so much when you actually have to do it.
Sorry if this has been covered already, but what if Trump declares Martial Law?
Is there any check against this?
Can he just claim any threat, no matter how ridiculous in support of his declaration?
Is the only counter to this impeachment?
The survey interviewed a sample of 1,325 Americans from June 5 through 20. Respondents were recruited from the Qualtrics online panel who had previously reported identifying with or leaning toward one of the two major parties. We focus on the 650 respondents who identify with or lean toward the Republican Party. The sample has been weighted to match the population in terms of sex, age, race and education.
Is the reading part the difficulty, or the comprehension?
Martial law requires the military go along with it. As they take an oath to defend the Constitution, above all others, I’d wager you’d have a very hard time getting them on board.
A stronger counter argument is Trump has a pattern of using executive power to it’s extent and even beyond it’s limits. Declaring martial law, halting the election in blue states till the illegals are rounded up, separate them from their children and deport them would not be out of step for Trump while blaming the democrats for it.
I do wonder if we could have the next world’s ‘Hitler’.
I’ve always maintained that my understanding of the social contract that I have with my country is that I will never take up arms against it as long as there are free and fair elections.
For the moment, I think such a power grab would be met with fierce resistance. I don’t believe he has that kind of power just yet; however, what is troubling and what is currently happening is the move to load his government with loyalists. Loads of career officers in the State Department are leaving, and so are many other civil servants who are being pushed out after decades on the job. Right now, he has resistance, but over time, he will have less. He will have a government of top people who are either afraid of him, or who in many cases are cheerleaders for his authoritarian management style and actively enforce it.
When I Google “obama wanted a third term” I get 21.7 million hits. Q.E.D.
The problem isn’t finding the cites — the Internet is full of them — but refining the query.
“obama wanted a third term Hillary is a witch” gets 953,000 hits.
“obama wanted a third term Hillary is a witch child sex ring” gets 712,000 hits.
Hope this helps?
Not many, and “prop up” is ridiculous exaggeration, but the US was diplomatically allied with Somalia starting in the mid-1970s and with the Khmer Rouge after they were driven out of power by the Vietnamese. Both were communist, but pro-Chinese and anti-Soviet: we supported them strategically b/c they were anti-Soviet.
I’m obviously not a lawyer but I pretend to be in real life.
I think Trump likes the idea of never leaving office. But he also likes the idea of sending journalists to prison camps and using the IRS to sue his enemies into oblivion. Trump wants to be a dictator because his fragile ego craves power and adulation and cannot handle criticism. He would do anything to feed his ego, and has no respect for the law or morality. Saddam Hussein used to have his political enemies tortured and the torture videotaped so he could watch it at home in his palace. I doubt Trump is that bad, but he doesn’t respect democracy in the slightest.
Luckily we have checks and balances, and if Trump refuses to leave I’m guessing the secret service or some other group will frog march him out the back door.
Also keep in mind that the healthier, wealthier and more educated a population is the less they tolerate dictatorship. When a nation hits 5-10k in per capita income, they tend to become pretty intolerant of dictatorships. Plus Trump lost the popular vote to a candidate who was unpopular and running for the 3rd democratic term. So the public wouldn’t just accept it, no matter what the alt-right says. There would be mass lawsuits, mass protests, mass strikes and armed insurrection if Trump tried this. Plus the international community would crack down with sanctions and pressure until Trump stepped down, the same way the US has done that with other dictators.
Democrats know the 22nd amendment prohibits this. Had we not had that amendment, then Obama wouldn’t be bad but honestly he wasn’t a great president. He wasn’t a fighter and he tried too hard to be liked.
But when people say Hillary was Obama’s third term they mean she would continue his policies, the same way Gore would’ve continued Clintons policies.
To truly get a third term the 22nd amendment needs to be overturned. I don’t see that happening.
Trump’s election made me realize how important checks and balances are.
Trump’s buddy Rudy G tried to stay in office an extra 3 months due to 9/11. There was supposed to be primary for mayor on 9/11/01 but it was canceled and moved to 9/25. The state did not allow him to stay the extra 3 months.