FLASHBACK: When Democrats Were All About Rogue Electors

(AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

Earlier the week, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed charges against 16 people who signed paperwork claiming that President Donald Trump had won the 2020 election, after widespread accusations of voter fraud and irregularities went uninvestigated.

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The 16 Republican electors reportedly met in the basement of the state’s GOP headquarters, and, according to Nessel, signed multiple certificates claiming they were “the duly elected and qualified electors for president and vice president of the United States of America for the state of Michigan.”

“That was a lie,” Nessel insisted. “They weren’t the duly elected and qualified electors, and each of the defendants knew it.”

Now these electors face eight felony counts each. “The false electors’ actions undermine the public’s faith in the integrity of our elections and not only violated the spirit of the laws enshrining and defending our democracy, but we believe also plainly violated the laws by which we administer our elections in Michigan and peaceably transfer power in America,” Nessel said.

This act by Nessel reveals just how far the radical left will go to criminalize the questioning of election results that they won. Yet, how different is this from the effort by leftists back in 2016 who urged electors to vote for Hillary Clinton in order to stop Trump from taking office?

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It’s true. On Nov. 24, 2016, Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig argued in The Washington Post that electors should defy the will of the voters in their states and cast their Electoral College votes for Hillary, even though Trump had rightfully won.

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Properly understood, the electors can serve an important function. What if the people elect a Manchurian candidate? Or a child rapist? What if evidence of massive fraud pervades a close election? It is a useful thing to have a body confirm the results of a democratic election — so long as that body exercises its power reflectively and conservatively. Rarely — if ever — should it veto the people’s choice. And if it does, it needs a very good reason.

So, do the electors in 2016 have such a reason?

So according to Lessig, evidence of “massive fraud” casting doubt over a close election was a viable reason for electors to defy the will of the people. There were widespread allegations of voter fraud and irregularities in battleground states that were decided by a handful of votes in 2020 — allegations that went uninvestigated. But since the Democrat was declared the winner, the media claimed that a simple recounting of votes proved there was no fraud, even though recounting potentially fraudulent votes doesn’t disprove fraud. People who dared to point out these problems were mocked by the media and suppressed and censored by Big Tech.

But 2016 wasn’t the first time Democrats embraced the idea of trying to use the Electoral College to defy the will of the people and swing an election that hadn’t gone their way.

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In 2004, John Kerry came close to contesting the election results in Ohio based on weak claims of problems with voting machines. Senate Democrats also didn’t want Ohio’s electoral votes to be counted and tried to delay certifying the results of the 2004 presidential election. John Kerry still said in 2018 that Bush took the election away from him. And to this day, countless Democrats still insist that Al Gore won the 2000 election.

None of these people were censored or faced legal consequences for their actions. And this tells you just how scary the Democrats are. They will punish those who question their power.

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