I do not imply to select on Symone Sanders Townsend.
However for the second time in as many weeks, the co-anchor of MSNBC’s The Weekend has uncovered a disturbing information deficit.
Final week, we caught Symone accusing Donald Trump, in his inaugural deal with, of “promising carnage.” The truth is, he promised to “cease” carnage, of the kind that retains “moms and youngsters trapped in poverty in our inside cities.”
In the present day, in a section dedicated to trashing third-party candidates due to the probability that they might take votes from Biden, Sanders revealed her unfamiliarity with the way in which that Electoral Faculty votes are awarded. Sanders:
“I feel now greater than any of our previous latest elections, that third-party candidates are a real, true menace to Joe Biden, but in addition to 270, interval. Our Structure says, to be the President of the USA, it’s important to win 270 Electoral Faculty votes. Not 269, not that majority guidelines all . . . Now, what if Joe Biden is denied 270? Or Donald Trump? Nicely, in accordance with the twelfth Modification, the Home will get to select who the president is.”
What Sanders fails to know is that in each state however Nebraska and Maine, whoever wins a plurality of the favored vote wins all the state’s Electoral Faculty votes. So even when a third-party candidate denied both Trump or Biden an outright majority in a given state [or in one of Nebraska or Maine’s electoral districts], as long as both Trump or Biden received extra votes than every other candidate, they’d get all the state’s electoral votes [or the electoral vote in the Nebraska or Maine district.]
Thus, the one approach that Sanders’ nightmare state of affairs might come to cross can be if one of many third-party candidates really gained a state, or certainly one of Nebraska or Maine’s districts. And never even essentially the most fevered conspiracy-mongers have recommended that RFK, Jr., not to mention Cornel West or Jill Stein, have any hope of pulling off such a miracle.
So Symone can sleep straightforward. However earlier than subsequent week’s present, it could actually behoove her to review up on the matters at hand!
Be aware: Steele advised Symone that there would not be an issue “if the Democrats win the Home in November.” That is not essentially true. Per the twelfth Modification, “Moderately than voting individually, Home members vote as state delegations. Every state delegation will get a single vote, and a candidate turns into president with the help of a majority (26) of state delegations.”
So, even when in November Democrats gained a majority of Home seats, it is doable that Republicans would have the bulk in additional state delegations, and thus might have the facility to elect the president. It is referred to as a “contingent election.”
This is the transcript.
MSNBC
The Weekend
4/13/24
8:19 am EDTJOE WALSH: [Third-party candidates are] so harmful.
MICHAEL STEELE: And it is simply, if sufficient of these folks to go to that place, to their joyful place, the place they will, the place they suppose that that vote goes to do what?
SYMONE SANDERS TOWNSEND: Let me say this. As a result of I feel that there’s a, I feel now greater than any of our previous latest elections, that third-party candidates are a real, true menace to Joe Biden, but in addition to 270, interval.
Our Structure says, to be the President of the USA, it’s important to win 270 Electoral Faculty votes. Not 269, not that majority guidelines all. Now, the poll entry issues right here, okay. So, RFK, Jr., Dr. West, Jill Stein. What does the poll entry program appear like? RFK, Jr. is somebody who is unquestionably —
STEELE: He is on one state proper now.
SANDERS TOWNSEND: He simply gained poll entry in North Carolina.
STEELE: So it is two states.
SANDERS TOWNSEND: Two. And that could be a — that is a problem. As a result of the margins matter right here. Now, what if Joe Biden is denied 270? Or Donald Trump?
STEELE: It goes to the Home.
SANDERS TOWNSEND: Nicely, in accordance with the twelfth Modification, the Home will get to select who the president is. I simply watched that episode of Scandal the opposite day.
STEELE: Which model of the Home? Is it the present Home or is the brand new Home that’s sworn in?
SANDERS TOWNSEND: It’s the, tt is the brand new Home.
STEELE: So if the Democrats win the Home in November, you do not have an issue.
SANDERS TOWNSEND: Nicely, meaning folks must vote down poll.
STEELE: Nicely, there you go.