EDITORIAL: An electoral crisis in the 2020 Election?

Did you know that, technically and legally speaking, your vote will not count?

Well yes, it does — your vote for president will be counted among the Election Day, early voting and absentee ballot totals. Almost certainly. But everyone knows that our votes are then transferred to the Electoral College, and they in turn vote for president. We have 15 from each party in North Carolina. Normally, if a Democrat wins the state, then the 15 Democrat electors would then cast their votes in that direction.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Article II of the US Constitution stipulates that state legislatures are the ones who ultimately choose the electors. And in states like North Carolina, with Republican-controlled legislatures, the state government has the right to name whomever they damn well please as electors. The Bush v. Gore Supreme Court decision in 2000 settled it.

So, technically and legally speaking, Joe Biden could win the popular vote in North Carolina, but our legislature could send our 15 electoral votes to Trump anyway.

Remember, we’re talking about Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore along with their cohorts, who have already tried to politicize our public restrooms, killed the popular film credits and illegally gerrymandered our state in order to gain political advantage.

And the same thing could happen in Arizona, and Michigan, and Pennsylvania, and Florida, and Wisconsin, which all meet the same qualifications and, incidentally, are the biggest swing states in this year’s presidential election.

Call it the nuclear option: A genuine coup.

How, you may ask, can we stop this?

Short answer: We cannot. It’s the sort of thing that would get settled in a back room and then hastily voted on, perhaps in the middle of the night, and only if Biden wins the popular vote — he’s up by about 3 points in NC right now. Afterwards, though, there would be lawsuits, street demonstrations, scathing editorials and whatever other retribution the people would be able to mete out.

And while something of this sort would be historic, it’s hard not to see the pieces fall into place. Two Republican State Board of Elections members just resigned in North Carolina, replaced by Republican political appointees.

Even at this late date, President Trump will not verbally commit to a peaceful transition of power after the election. And despite all polling, which shows him as many as 10 points behind nationally, Trump acts like a man with nothing to lose.