The coming constitutional crisis over Electoral College | Hour 3

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I have talked about this several times over the last few months. Okay. I talked about it when Virginia did it. Virginia entered into this compact. And what it means, it is not an abolition of the Electoral College specifically, right? The Electoral College is how we elect presidents. Laid out in the Constitution, right? The Electoral College votes are determined by population. So to use North Carolina as an example, You take the total population in the census count. This is why the census is so important. You take the census count and you, well, you'd have to take the census count of the entire country and then you divide it by 435. Why 435? That's how many seats there are in the U.S. House, okay? So you divide the total population by 435 and that gives you the average population size, the optimal size of each congressional district. North Carolina has about 10 to 11 million people. So you would take that number of like, I think the congressional district size is somewhere around like 840,000 people or so. Let's just say 800,000 just for sake of argument here. So you take the total population of America divided by 435, and you work out to be something like 800,000. That means however many people you have in your state, every 800,000 of them or so get one congressional representative. And every state is guaranteed a minimum of one. So even if your state has like 100,000 people, you're still going to get one congressional seat, one House seat. So North Carolina with 10 to 11 million people We get 14 seats, 14 House districts, okay? Then you also get two Electoral College votes, one per U.S. Senator. So every state is guaranteed a minimum of three Electoral College votes, every state. Even District of Columbia, they get three Electoral College votes, or EVs as they call them, electoral votes. North Carolina, we have 14 House seats. We have two Senators. We have 16 EVs. Okay? And the way it has been done since the 17th Amendment, worst amendment, which... So, okay. Well, it used to be that we would, like, we used to send our senators to D.C. and those were appointed by the state legislatures. Okay? That used to be the way it was done. Then we moved to a popular election during the progressive era, Woodrow Wilson, that maniac, worst president ever. And um, along, uh, right about like, this is where like this idea comes from to change the electoral college because the idea is, well, we want to popularly elect the president. The president is not elected based on a national popular vote. Okay. That's something the media counts. That is not something that has any impact whatsoever constitutionally on the election of the president. Whoever gets the most votes in America does not matter for president. What matters is the individual state counts, what those results are. So North Carolina goes for Donald Trump, right? Hillary Clinton loses North Carolina. So Donald Trump got our 16 electoral college votes. Hillary Clinton got zero. Now, some states over the past decade or so have begun splitting their EVs based on, like, if you got 55% of the vote, you would get 55% of the EVs or whatever. There's like two states that do that. Very small, if I recall correctly. Not a big deal. But the vast majority of the states, it's winner take all. You win our state, you get our EVs, right? So in the 2016 race, Trump wins North Carolina. Hillary loses North Carolina. Trump gets our EVs. But Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. If North Carolina was a part of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, this agreement with other states, if North Carolina was a party to that compact in 2016, our state would have voted for Donald Trump, but our EVs would have gone to Hillary Clinton because she got more of the, quote, national popular vote. which again, is not how we elect presidents. So people who don't like this mechanism, because remember George W. Bush in his first election, he also won the electoral college vote. In other words, he won the presidency, but he did not carry the popular vote. And so ever since 2000, people have been complaining, Democrats have been complaining about this, trying to figure out a way to get around this because they do better in the popular vote. because they have more Democrat voters by registration. So they think they should win every presidential race, and that's why they would like the popular vote. And they dress it up in this argument of, you know, we want every person's vote to count for president and all of this. Just like they made the same argument when they changed us from appointment of our U.S. senators to direct popular election of our U.S. senators. Same argument. But again, the problem here is that the Electoral College is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. And getting the Constitution changed, that's hard. That means I have to convince people to change it. I mean, at least when we changed it for the U.S. Senators going from appointment to election, at least they did the work, right? At least they actually got the amendments changed. But the people who have been pushing this compact... They're going about it in a different way. They're saying, we don't need a constitutional amendment. All we need is a compact, an interstate contract where we just cobble together enough states that agree to throw their EVs at whoever wins the national popular vote. So even if our state votes for Trump, if Hillary Clinton wins the popular vote, North Carolina would would have to give its electoral votes over to her. So you end up then whoever wins the national popular vote gets every single EV. Right. If all the states agree to this, that's what that would look like. Even if states didn't vote for her. Right. Think of like. California, they got 54 electoral votes. They have a lot of people in California, got a lot of people in New York. Let's say those two states outvote every other state. They would win, even if every state went for the opponent. The founding fathers did not set up a national election for president. That was not the point here. We hold a presidential election, a federal election, Nationally, yes, but these are 50 state elections for federal offices that are on the same day. The election is on the same day. That's the system that we have now. This idea of the interstate compact, this is meant as an end run around the Constitution. This is an attempt to change it without having to change it. And what happened on Tuesday, they just got to the tipping point now. The holidays will be here before you know it, and so now is the time to create precious and priceless family heirlooms that will last for generations. Take your old photos, slides, films, and tapes to create a video in Mint Hill. 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The electoral college, the way that we have elected our presidents for 250 years is now, uh, about to be essentially nullified. Um, because of the election on Tuesday. And why do I say that? Well, I have, uh, on my computer, uh, the map of all of the states that flipped, uh, control from Republicans to Democrats. Okay. And there were a bunch, you had New Hampshire, uh, but they have a Republican governor. You have Georgia, North Carolina, uh, you know, split basically. Um, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, Texas, partially. So these legislatures that flipped, I'm not interested in the ones like New Hampshire that have a Republican governor. Chances are Kelly Ayotte is not going to sign on to this compact. However, in states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, They all have Democrat governors. So where it stood, the last state to enter the compact, one of the first things that Democrats did when they won the trifecta in Virginia was to join the interstate compact. And the interstate compact, what the proponents of it have been able to kind of stay under the radar over is that, you know, none of this gets triggered until we get to 270 electoral votes. 270 is the number needed to win the presidency. Okay. I've probably now gone more in depth on this than a lot of schools do in America. People are not taught this stuff. So they don't understand when they're watching the election returns and Hillary wins the popular vote and Trump wins the presidency. Like, how did that happen? Because, well, you were not educated. You were not told about the electoral college. Okay. And how that system works and why that system exists. Literally, we would not be the United States of America but for the electoral college system. Literally. This was done in order to get states to agree to join the union. They would not have done so but for the electoral college. The states who were autonomous did not want to surrender any kinds of power to the larger populated states, right? They were, you know, they were Massachusetts men. They were New Jerseyans. They were New Yorkers, right? But hey, we want to get everybody together as part of the United States. It's right there in our name, United States of America, right? The states created the federal government. And now, the states have willingly surrendered their power over to the states that joined the compact. They're surrendering their power over to the federal government, over to a national government. So even if your voters vote for Trump, the state will give your electoral votes to Hillary Clinton. And originally, states would not have agreed to join the United States if that was the system. They would not have joined. So you don't want to go about amending the Constitution to abolish the Electoral College. This is what the DSA is promoting, right? They want to get rid of the Electoral College. Democrats have been approving the compact in their states because they want to abolish it as well because it's an impediment to them, right? But if we were to just do a national popular vote All of our elections would be determined by California, New York, Texas, and Florida. That's the way that would go. Because those four states would have more people voting that all the other states, whatever way they voted, wouldn't matter. Okay? So how do you go about getting around this? Well, you got to get the states to join the compacts. Democrats are generally the ones that are doing this and have been doing this. And now they have flipped the enough legislatures to get them there. Virginia signed on. That took the total electoral votes represented by all the compact states to 222. Pennsylvania flipped. Michigan flipped. Wisconsin flipped. That's 48 electoral votes. You add 48 to 222, you got 270. And that triggers. Pennsylvania's already got this bill in committee. They're already down this path. They have 19 electoral votes. Michigan has 17. Wisconsin has 12. If North Carolina, if Danny Britt loses that seat in North Carolina State Senate and the State Senate is tied 25-25, tiebreaker vote is then held by the lieutenant governor, a Democrat, North Carolina could end up joining this thing too with its 16 electoral votes. And then it wouldn't matter if we ever vote for a Republican again. And by the way, you won't see like the idea of swing states that goes away. There are no more swing states. Nobody is going to care about campaigning in different states. And remember, swing states change because populations change. Right. People move into a state. Takes a long time. But when I was growing up, Florida was a swing state. Ohio. was a swing state now it's become much more republican right voter trends change populations change more slowly and so you're going to have basically four states determining who is president and then who is that president more beholden to right those four states you could you could do things to harm every other state as long as the big four are protected As long as the most populated states get what they want, then all the 46 other states doesn't matter. Policies that may hurt all those other states won't matter to the president. The only states that would matter would be the four big populated ones. And so now they've hit the 270, or they will, I assume, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, maybe Arizona too, that'll take them to 281. They'll have enough electoral votes to then trigger this. Lawsuits will come. This will be litigated. There are already lawsuits ready to go. They can't file them now because it hasn't been triggered. But once these states move these pieces of legislation and then we go to the presidential race in two years, this may be what we see. We may have seen in 26 the very last presidential election in determined by state's electoral votes. All right, real quick, every government number gets revised, right? Every projection gets walked back. Gold does not file corrections like GovCo. Revelation Gold Group helps families hold physical gold and silver, including in a tax-advantaged gold IRA. It's real, it's in your name, and 10 minutes tells you if your retirement account qualifies. If you want to learn more, go to calendarmetals.com. That's calendarmetals.com. There is a link in the podcast description. Or if you want to talk to somebody, you can call 888-465-3049. There was a tweet or a post onto the X by a fella named Dave Cavell. And I think I may have... I think I might understand why Kamala Harris was such a terrible speaker. He was the head speechwriter for Kamala Harris, okay? So keep that in mind when you hear the way he's talking about the interstate compact, okay? Here's what he tweeted. Oh my God, not capitalized God, of course. um oh my god the back door to abolishing the electoral college he just said it this is what they want this is the speech writer for kamala harris like first off we know it's a back door to abolishing the electoral college but like dude, you, you shouldn't just come out and say that because like, we've been accusing you of trying to do that. And y'all have been like, no, no, no, that's not it at all. And now you're saying it is because once you get what you want, then you can say, yeah, that's what we wanted. Yes. It's been a backdoor. It's an end run around the electoral college. So he's very excited. Um, Exclamation points. The back door to abolishing the Electoral College. Yay. The Interstate Compact gives the presidency to whoever wins the most votes nationwide once states totaling 270 plus electoral votes join it. With Democrats flipping this many state legislatures, we shockingly have a path. Right. That path is Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. And Arizona thrown in the mix as well. In Pennsylvania, Democrats have already run this bill. It got thrown into a committee. That's where it's been sitting. And now with a trifecta of Democrat House, Senate, and Governor, they can pull it out of committee and approve it. That gets you 19 electoral votes. And then it just comes down to Wisconsin and Michigan. They too have flipped. They have trifectas. I anticipate they will do the same thing. And then All of our presidential elections will only be decided by four states that have the most population because that's where the most votes will come from. Those four states, right? A direct democracy, which is not what the founders set up for a reason. They were not fans. They went with a representative republic for a reason, right? They went with a federalist model for a reason. Now, Slight problem. This may be unconstitutional. Now, the proponents say, totally constitutional. I don't know what you're talking about. This is totally allowed. Because Article 2, Section 1, provides that each state shall appoint electors, quote, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct. So that sounds like the legislative bodies can do this, right? Over time, every state moved to popular elections for president, but that is a choice that the states made, not a requirement that the Constitution imposed. In the Supreme Court, back in 1892, they described this power as extensive. The court emphasized that the appointment power belongs to the states and that legislatures may choose the method subject to other constitutional restraints. Subject to other constitutional constraints. Well, what might other constitutional constraints be? What might that be? Seems pretty important to check. Well, there's another part of the Constitution. It's called the Compact Clause. And it literally says, no state shall, without the consent of Congress, enter into any agreement or compact with another state. So I'm not sure if the interstate compact would be a compact. I'm not clear. I'm sure some lawyers and maybe some Lawyers with a wardrobe change wearing robes might be able to decipher for me whether or not compact is a compact. Like, I don't know. I need some lawyer to tell me that is a compact compact. It's very unclear. So this is why it's going to get, it's going to go to court. Or you end up with a Democrat trifecta in Congress with a Democrat president and they would just approve it. Right? They would say, Compact looks fine to us. Consent of Congress given. There you go. We're all right. I don't even know if you need the president to do that. It just says with the consent of Congress. So you might not even need a president. Congress, like we are going to have with the next swearing in, Democrat controlled, they could give its blessing to the compact. As soon as these states fall in line, they could boom, boom, boom, do the state bills, join the compact. Congress says looks good to us. We consent. Done. 2028 presidential race completely upended. But for the lawsuits, which just, you know, just tabletopping this, just war gaming this out here. Let's say that Congress approves it and the Supreme Court says, well, you follow the Constitution. You got the consent to Congress. All all boxes are checked. New way to elect a president, everybody. What then? And what happens if the race is really close? Hmm. What happens if you're doing a national popular vote and the race is decided by, you know, it's like 70 million to 70 million won? Like one vote, 10 votes, whatever. What if you're within half a percentage point? How do we recount? Well, you'd have to recount every state. Every single state would have to do a recount, right? That's the only way to know if every vote was counted correctly towards the national popular vote, which, by the way, this is also why the founders set it up like this, too, so you wouldn't have this kind of problem, right? It localizes any kind of issue with the vote counts and stuff. It is localized to a single state. Yes, that may impact the electoral votes, right, in that one state. However, if you're going to do a recount, you only have to do one state. You don't have to do all 50, plus D.C., plus Puerto Rico, right? Do they vote? I think they vote. So what happens when you have a large portion, say, of the 40-some-odd other states that are not happy with the results? What happens when people feel like their nation has just been overthrown? This is why I say this is going to be a constitutional crisis, one of the many that Democrats are trying to invoke here and inspire with their nullification actions. It is the party of the Civil War, so it's kind of on brand. Let me get to the text messages. They have been piling up here in the inbox. Kirk says, if they ever pull this crap, I think it would be civil war. Well, I mean, that is the risk that you run when you play this nullification game. I've talked about this in regards to other policies and actions that Democrats have been pursuing this nullification crisis to inspire a constitutional crisis like that's this is the risk. They're playing with fire because they they want to just change the rules. This is why you would, you know, pack the U.S. Supreme Court threatened before by a Democrat who wasn't getting his way as president because the Supreme Court kept saying, no, that's not constitutional. He's like, well, then you know what? I'm going to add a bunch of seats. I'm going to pack it with my friends and they're going to vote for me. That's what Democrats are looking to do now. Blowing up the filibuster, for example, like these types of things that they are abolishing. The Electoral College are doing an end run around it. That's the or backdoor abolishment like immigration. We're not going to cooperate on immigration law. Right. These are all nullification efforts. We don't recognize the authority of the federal government because we're not in charge, basically. Joe says the Electoral College collusion will truly set up a real constitutional crisis. Yes, I agree. I can see a time where a Republican gets the popular vote and the compact refuses to honor their agreement. That's a possibility as well. Paul says... that can't be right because having the Democrats been saying that we're not following the Constitution, but you just said the Electoral College is in the Constitution, so it can't be possible that Democrats would try to change that if they want to follow the Constitution. Well, Democrats rely on the Constitution to get what they want and to get you to stop opposing them or to stop you from doing something. Then it's like, you know, strange new respect and reverence for the Constitution. But Otherwise, they just will ignore it or it's an impediment to doing what they have to do or want to do, I should say. Oscar asks if the North Carolina governor has signed on to this or has been asked to. No, not yet. The Republican legislature has never run this bill. If it were to come to his desk, I have no doubt he would sign it. I have no doubt that Democrats in North Carolina would sign on to this. Um, Eric says, I think if they pass the compact and then we see the first time a state that voted for one candidate vote for another in the electoral college, there would be a huge political backlash in that state, no matter which way it cuts. Could you imagine California politicians having to explain to their constituents why their state cast electoral votes for Marco Rubio? Right. Well, that's, and this is the point is that they don't think that this would ever be the case. Right. So that's why they that's why they are pushing this. But, yeah, like you would have a bunch of states that vote for it. And then, you know, what what of the states like North Carolina? We vote Trump. Hillary gets the popular vote. Had this been in play, then let's say we're not part of the compact. But we see all these other states then give her all of their electoral votes, including states that voted for Trump and then. we feel robbed, right? Because what if, right? As in 2016, Trump had enough electoral votes to win the presidency. And we voted for that candidate in North Carolina. And then you give it to, you give it to his opponent. Do you think that creates a legitimacy crisis? It absolutely does. Absolutely. Um, Kevin says liberals may not like eventually if, We get rid of the electoral college. Liberals have a birth rate of about one kid per family. They're a dying electorate, especially if we keep our conservative kids out of their clutches. Yeah, they're not reproducing. Democrats do not reproduce. That's why they import people. They have to import the voters and they have to get your kids through the K-12 system. I say all us conservatives move to those states that will be part of the compact. That'll screw them up or skew them up, says Kathy. Dennis says, since it is a compact, can it be nullified by withdrawing? Yes, the states could withdraw from the compact, but they would have to do so. From Tim, no need to overthink it. The blue wave happened because the American people had enough of a feckless Congress that was captive to Trump. OK, I'm not really sure. what that has to do with the Electoral College, Tim. But, okay. Let's see here. John says, as if I wasn't already ready to jump off a bridge. I'm just, I give you the information so we are prepared. That's why I do this. So are electoral votes a bad or good thing? Are they not being used properly or fairly? No, they are. They are what they are. It's not bad or good, fair or unfair. The electoral votes... are determined by the outcome in the individual states. That's how those are apportioned. That's the way it's always been. There should be rulings at the Supreme Court now against ranked choice voting and unconditional voting compacts and or amendments, says Steve. I have no doubt this would go to the U.S. Supreme Court. And then, whichever way they decide, then you have another legitimacy crisis and a constitutional crisis, right? That's where we are. Because they won't amend the Constitution. They won't get the buy-in letter. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the Pete Kaliner show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.