Rasmussen Calls on Mike Pence to Reject 2020 Electoral Votes
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Ken MeyerDec 28th, 2020, 12:48 pm 
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If they are (as more than 70% of Republicans believe) certificates from non-electors appointed via voter fraud, why should he open & count them?" If the votes of all 7 contested states are registered as zero, President Trump will have 232 votes, Joe Biden will have 222. 3/4
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Per the 12th Amendment: "[T]he votes shall then be counted[.] ... The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President[.]" Reader comments? 4/4 More here -
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Rasmussen is urging Vice President Mike Pence to ignore the 2020 election results when Congress moves to certify Joe Biden's victory in the Electoral College next week.
The conservative-leaning pollster and opinion outlet amplified a column that begins with a quote attributed to Russian dictator Joseph Stalin , which says "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything." The article recognizes the meaning of the quote as "true" before eventually suggesting that when Pence appears before Congress, he could move to exclude the results from every battleground state where the 2020 election results were contested.
From the piece:
Come January 2021, Vice President Mike Pence will be presented with the sealed certificates containing the ballots of the presidential electors. At that moment, the Presidency will be in his hands. And there is nothing stopping Pence, under the authority vested in him as President of the Senate, from declining to open and count the certificates from the six disputed states. If they are (as more than 70% of Republicans believe) certificates from non-electors appointed via voter fraud, why should he open and count them?
When Rasmussan promoted the piece on Twitter, they did so by emphasizing that Donald Trump would lead Biden's electoral count if the battleground state results were somehow zilched before Congress.
"The President's position going into January 2021 is thus considerably stronger than the mainstream media would like to admit," the piece says. "There is Constitutional language and historical precedent that gives his Vice President the unilateral power to decide the outcome of our contested election."
Per the 12th Amendment: "[T]he votes shall then be counted[.] … The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President[.]"
Reader comments?
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— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) December 27, 2020
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This is pretty much hilarious.
How many times have MAGA devotees told us that Rassmussen was the only legitimate poll and that it had Trump on top?
I've never heard of a polling organization advocating for stealing an election before. First time for everything I suppose.
Trump is the cause of so many FCKD up Firsts, and the reason why we are first in the world with Corona infections and deaths, thus last in the world, as his LIES would be why, imho.
Bizarre, well maybe not as bizarre considering it's Rassmussen. After all, they are non-partisian. Really they are, the righties on NT told me so.
Pretty crazy stuff.
They are getting desperate. Can you imagine the outrage if Hillary had gone through all these legal battles back in 2016?
The right would be crying for the next 300 years.
There sure as hell IS something stopping Pence from declining to open the certificates and counting the votes therein, it's called the Constitution.
Again, conservatives seem to think that truncating a quotation somehow makes their point. It's gaslighting and disgusting.
From the 12th Amendment:
The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;
Shall is unequivocal. Pence has NO choice to follow the Constitution. PERIOD, full stop.
Of course, Pence could wimp out and call in sicky poo but I'm pretty sure that would be the final nail in the coffin of his political career.
Then, they will have to find a Republican to elect, who has the gonads to act as President Pro Tempore of the Senate. Anyone want to venture a guess who will step up and volunteer for that job?
The R party officials should step in here to protect the integrity of the GOP. They should declare Biden the winner. It would be a purely symbolic declaration, but it is important that the party itself take a stand. The nutcase Rs like Rasmussen are serving as defacto representatives of the GOP and the GOP should not allow this. A party should not be defined by its lunatic fringe.
They should have stepped up to the plate weeks ago, but there is still considerable value (to them) to step up now.
They lost me at "hello" (when they confirmed Trump as their nominee), so too little too late in my opinion. But it would help me to gain a little respect for those Republicans who would do what they can to return some level of rational and reasonable to the party once known for supporting civil rights, states rights/responsibilities (not a dog-whistle... you know what I mean), freer markets unsullied by political influence, a limited and Constitutionally focused Federal Government, and an equally applied rule of law with equal consequences for all. Short of that, the GOP can join the Democrats as far as I'm concerned and go pound sand.
We should have at least three strong parties competing away (or, ideally, no parties at all). Devolving into a single party is not a recipe for a healthy political system.
Indeed.
The "lawsuit" is so ridiculous that no one imagines it might succeed. It's in fact Republicans screwing with other Republicans. Cornering the Veep.
There is no legal justification or authority to ignore the electoral vote.
To reiterate the important part: Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct
Not Congress. Not the Vice President. They don't get to say that electors should be appointed in any particular way, nor do they have the authority to review and judge the process. If they were allegedly appointed in violation of state law, that would be a matter reviewable by the state Supreme Court. That has been tried and failed. Time to move on.
Indeed Article II, Section 1 establishes the number of electors a State may appoint, and that the manner of their appointment shall be left to each State legislature. However, the 12th Amendment goes on to establish how the electors shall vote and makes it clear that each vote shall be counted.
Nowhere in the Constitution is it indicated that a winner take all approach should be allowed in each State as it pertains to electors in a Federal Presidential Election. Such an approach disenfranchises millions of voters (Democrat and Republican) each presidential election in many states, focuses political campaign efforts primarily on a handful of swing states, and can certainly be proven to be inconsistent with the language of the 12th Amendment which indicates that each elector shall vote independently and that each vote shall be counted ( Bold high-lighted bits above). Interesting article about this with greater detail HERE .
So when you say, " ... nor do they have the authority to review and judge the process " if you mean the appointment process, then I tend to agree. But when it comes to how the electors vote and how those votes are counted, I think the 12th Amendment provides all the Constitutional authority necessary to see that the electoral college works the way it was intended to work.