FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT ALTERNATE SLATE ELECTORS AND THE DUELLING VOTES CAST FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP AND VICE-PRESIDENT PENCE IN PENNSYLVANIA, GEORGIA, MICHIGAN, WISCONSIN, ARIZONA.

On Monday, the US Electoral College met in each of the 50 states and cast votes to elect Joseph R. Biden as the 46th President of the United States of America. He will now be officially addressed as the President-Elect. 

However, while Democrat Electors cast votes to elect Biden in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Nevada, a different slate of Republican Electors also cast votes for incumbent President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in each of those states. 

Trump supporter and political commentator, Enenche Enenche, explained the actions of these alternate electors in a statement originally published on his Facebook page as follows:

It is appearing confusing to some why there were Republican Electors casting “conditional votes” or Dueling Votes for President Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona, at the same time Democratic Electors are casting their votes in the Electoral College in these swing states. Below are five things you need to know:

i. Even though former Vice President Joe Biden has been elected by the Electoral College and will be formally designated President-Elect moving forward, there are pending litigations in each of the battle ground states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona. 

ii. The Constitution requires that on 14th December 2020, the Electoral College formally elects the President. However, the Constitution also recognises the need to resolve “all pending disputes” in the election. Therefore, by casting their “conditional votes”, the Republican electors may have fulfilled a constitutional obligation in anticipation the pending cases will be resolved in favour of President Donald J. Trump.

iii. A precedent to this was the 1960 Presidential Election. While President Richard Nixon of the Republican Party was declared winner in Hawaii amidst pending court disputes by the Democratic candidate, John F. Kennedy, Democratic Electors cast conditional votes for JFK “to preserve their intent in the event of future favourable legal outcomes”. Indeed, Kennedy prevailed in the courts, and he, not Nixon eventually became President. 

iv. In the same vein the slate of electors from the Four States will be presented to Congress just as those from the Electoral College. This is ahead of the joint session of Congress on 6th January 2021, when the electoral votes from across the country will be received and counted, to certify and determine the President of the United to be sworn-in on 20th January 2021. The 117th incoming Congress of the United States is the final authority that will determine who becomes the President in a possible Contingent Election. 

v. There are four crucial developments, which could still impact who is eventually sworn-in as President: The Forensic Report on the Dominion Voting Machine in Michigan, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling, the reported plan to commence signature verification in Georgia, and the public hearing on election integrity in Arizona. Also, Mike Kelly’s case on Act 77 pending before the Supreme Court, as well as Sidney Powell’s suits in the Circuit Courts, are among arrays of litigations which could still turn things around. 

The Coming Days will be interesting that is why IT IS NOT OVER.

Enenche Enenche 

Abuja, Nigeria