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Charlie: Constitutionally, any state legislature can replace the electors without the governor. (And these legislators are from red districts whose constituents will appreciate and reward them.) And it can only be challenged in the joint session of Congress, presided over by Vice President Michael Pence. Pence can choose to only recognize and present to the joint session the certificate from the legislature, which has constitutional authority.

London bookies are still accepting, and receiving, bets on who will win and be president. As of today Trump has a 10% betting odds. (Which, funnily enough, is the same odds that Nate Silver from the famous 538 polling firm gave him on November 2, the night before the election. And it is a better odd than Trump was given before the 2016 election.)

The premise of the OP is correct. If Trump pulls through and wins (whether through recounts, litigation, state legislatures or in Congress), it is a virtual certainty that BLM, Democrats, Antifa and other far-leftists will riot, loot and burn.

It is notable that rioting and looting is a hallmark of the Democrat-left while virtually unheard of in the right.

All that said, the president is well-equipped to put down any insurrection by nationalizing the National Guard or by sending the Marines into the cities (as was done by the president in in Los Angeles during the 1990 riots.)

ENS: If you think Biden supporters and/or blue states will declare civil war secession if in a turn of events Trump wins a majority of the electoral college constitutionally, even if through an untraditional chain of legal events, then rest assured that the President, like President Lincoln before him, is well equipped to put down the insurrection.

“The Supreme Court has no role here.”

Exactly, correct.

“It is the *Governor* who certifies the electors, not the legislature.”

Normally by LAW, correct. But the legislature has the CONSTITUTIONAL right to assert the power of declaring who the state electors are. And constitutional law overrides statutory law.

“It takes separate votes of BOTH houses of Congress to reject the Governor’s certification.”

Correct, but irrelevant. Because that’s only applicable if the presiding officer of the joint session of Congress, which is VP Pence, on January 6 presents the governor’s certification. Then it would take both houses to override it. But if Congress receives more than one certification from a state, VP Pence will only recognize the constitutional certification from the legislature to present to Congress while ignoring and not recognizing the second certification from the governor, since the legislature has constitutional priority for this purpose.

“The Supreme Court, even with 3 Trump justices, will quickly rule that such an action is illegal.”

The Supreme Court has no role in reviewing the January 6 electoral count in Congress. The constitution assigns that role exclusively to Congress. Another coequal branch of the government (either the executive or judiciary) are not part of this constitutional process.

On January 6 Congress will declare the final vote tally of the electoral college. Following that the issue is finalized and settled. Vice President Pence, as President of the US Senate and constitutionally the presiding officer of the joint session session, is the final arbiter with his declaration.

se2015: If fraud is found and the courts nevertheless cannot rectify it, the legislatures have standing to act.

The federal Constitution takes precedence over state laws. This is a fundamental legal principle. Given that the United States Constitution give direct unambiguous authority to the state legislatures alone, state laws purporting to limit that constitutional right are effectively void. And since once the legislature acts only Congress can challenge it, the courts have no standing or ability to interfere with the official act of a coequal branch of government, the legislative branch, as a matter of separation of powers.

In addition to the Pennsylvania Legislature, as mentioned earlier, the Michigan Legislature is also holding a rare emergency session to investigate election irregularities. All this is the beginning of the various state legislatures leading up to taking action to directly appoint electors supporting Trump.

ENS:

1. This constitutional procedure is not illegal. It is a process outlined directly in the Constitution of the United States.

2. The joint session of Congress counting the electoral college on January 6 is presided over, as directed in the Constitution, by the President of the US Senate. The President of the US Senate is a gentleman by the name of Michael Pence. The presiding officer V.P. Pence has the authority to decide which certificates of electoral college received is recognized and announced by him in the joint session. If he doesn’t present a certificate there’s nothing to challenge.

3. The Presidential Succession Act only is relevant if no one received a majority of the electoral college. If Vice President Pence announces, per the electoral college certificates received from the state legislatures, that President Trump received a majority of the electoral college, that is the end of the matter. President Trump is reelected.

Furthermore, even IF the Presidential Succession Act had come into play, there’s a legal dispute whether the Speaker can become Acting President, since the Constitution specifies only an “Officer” of the government can assume the powers of the presidency. In legal terms an Officer is only a member of the Executive Branch. Pelosi is only a member of the legislative branch, thus arguably unqualified. So how is this legal ambiguity resolved, you ask? The Justice Department can issue a legal opinion stating the three Speaker isn’t qualified. It is binding. And the head of the Department of Justice is a gentleman by the name of William Barr.

Amil: You’re simply not following this discussion. It is going over your head. I refer you to Article 2, Section 1, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution. This has nothing to do with districts. Any state legislature can decide how to assign their state electoral college. There’s nothing to litigate. They can change the process at any time, to anything they decide.

Amil: You completely missed the point. Any state legislature has the constitutional authority to directly award their state electoral votes, even now after the election, to any candidate of their choosing.

jackk, let’s talk on December 8th.

How will the Democrats react once the constitutional process is completed and the legislatures give Trump the electoral college votes he needs for reelection?

charliehall: If the state legislatures now directly appoint the presidential electors, it has no bearing or legal effect on the local and state down ballot elections.

The beauty of this upcoming plan for the state legislatures that is now being formulated when it comes into fruition as likely, IY”H, before December 8, is that the Republican legislators in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Georgia are from red local districts that voted for Trump and whose voters will appreciate and reward their representative for having reelected President Trump, and rectified the fraud perpetuated against him.

The focus of the fraud was in the swing states where it mattered.

The Democrats have a long sorid history of voting fraud. They famously stole the 1960 election, with LBJ manipulating ballots. They tried to steal 2000, with Broward County in Florida miraculously turning to new ballots with every recount, against all statistical probabilities. Chicago and the Daley political machine was always famous for bringing out the dead to vote.

No wonder Democrats fight against purging voter rolls of the dead and those that moved. And fight against requiring photo ID to vote. (You can’t even get into a government building or on a plane or purchase alcohol without photo ID.)

And mail-in ballots make fraudulent voting so much easier. Especially when you automatically send out live ballots to all registered voters, dead or alive, without request.

Amil: The poll watchers were kept 20+ feet away from the counting to prevent them from being able to see and challenge invalid ballots with late postmarks, mismatched signatures, etc.

Republicans never agreed to that distance, which was too far away to “observe” the count, as the law specifies.

There’s a solid conservative majority even without Roberts.