I’m not a day late with this post; and yes, I do realise what happened last night. I’m pretty confident Obama will be inaugurated as 44th president on January 20.
Constitutionally, though, he’s not even been elected yet because as you’ll no doubt know, the President is officially elected by the electoral college when it meets on December 15. Or rather when it doesn‘t meet: the electors gather in their state capitals, send certificates recording their votes to Washington, and then on 6 January 2009 a joint session of Congress counts the certified votes and declares who will be President and Vice President. The procedures are set out in the 12th amendment to the US Constitution, and you can find out more about the electoral college here.
The truly amazing thing is that in many states, there is no legal requirement for electors – that is, members of the electoral college – to respect the popular vote in their states. So if the electors of New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois (somewhat unlikely, this, I admit) and New Jersey were all to vote for McCain instead of Obama…
It seems like the stuff of fiction rather than reality – but then, who’d have believed how the Presidency was settled in 2000? It’s worth musing on circumstances in which the electors might one day feel obliged to cut loose from their pledges – say, if a President-elect is involved in some sort of scandal or disgrace following election day. I bet it happens in my lifetime.
Carl…. an unusual take – but you are right, of course in terms of the Constitution.
fascinating election – if only we had the same enthusiasm for elections in this country?
Good to see you back. Lord Lester, as you know, has ‘stepped down’… or as one MoJ minister/Mp put it… a number of Brown appointees have been ‘crawling away’…. appalling way to talk of people…
Brown and Jack seem to be missing a few points… and muddled thinking ain’t good
Charon, I think the turnout shows (as in France last year, where the turnout was very high) that it’s when politicians offer real policy choices that turnout goes up – it’s nothing to do with methods of voting or whether it’s at the weekend.
As for Lord Lester… what I wonder is why he left, exactly. I suspect the work on this bill has just been an awful farrago with people wanting very different things from it, and no chance of ever achieving anything sensible with it.