Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)

WASHINGTON – A group of Republican lawmakers orchestrating an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election will reveal their strategy Wednesday during a joint session of Congress to confirm the Electoral College vote.

According to the Associated Press, Republicans leading the long-shot effort in Congress were still deciding the details of their strategy on Tuesday to overturn Joe Biden’s victory and instead hand it to current president Donald Trump.

On Tuesday morning, House Republicans met to discuss the situation and Congressman Tom Reed, a Republican who Represents Chautauqua County, was one of those in attendance. But unlike nearly 100 of his GOP colleagues, Reed explained during a conference call with media that he is against the effort, basing his decision on the Constitution.

“It is clear to me that the U.S. Constitution calls upon our election for president to be done at the state level. If there are issues of fraud, if there are issues of whether or not those elections are carried out lawfully, they are to be adjudicated at the state level. They are to be reviewed at the state level,” Reed said. “There is no state legislature that has asked us to intervene…. that being said, I will not be objecting to the state electors [from the Electoral College], based upon my commitment to the U.S. Constitution.”

Reed also announced the same decision during a virtual town hall meeting Monday night, drawing harsh criticism from many of the Republican and Conservative constituents that have supported him during his ten years in congress.

Trump’s attempt to enlist his allies to overturn Biden’s 306-232 election win is unlike anything ever attempted in modern times, and it is all but certain to fail. Biden is set to be inaugurated Jan. 20.

George Borrello (left) and Andy Goodell

JAMESTOWN – As New York voters watch the 2020 presidential campaign from the sidelines, Senator George Borrello and Assemblyman Andy Goodell have introduced legislation that would give New Yorkers more of a voice in the process by requiring the state’s electoral votes to more accurately reflect the popular vote.

Under the current system, all of New York’s electoral votes are cast for the presidential candidate that receives the greatest number of votes statewide.  This “winner-take-all” approach enables a presidential candidate to win the election based on wins in a few key states, without consideration of the millions of people who may have voted for a different candidate.

The number of electoral votes in each state is based on the number of its congressional members and senators. The legislation drafted by Assemblyman Goodell and Senator Borrello would replace the winner-take-all model with the “congressional district method” that allocates electoral votes based on the plurality of the popular vote within each congressional district. Two electors would continue to be selected based on the statewide vote, as are the U.S. Senators.

Currently in use by Maine and Nebraska, the two Republican legislators say the congressional district method results in a more proportional allocation of electoral votes overall, while preserving the constitutionally-mandated Electoral College.

“Every campaign season, citizens are encouraged to exercise their right to vote and are barraged with messaging that their ‘vote matters.’ Yet, every four years, that notion is wholly undermined when the two major party candidates for president focus their presence, platform and resources on a handful of swing states, at the expense of New York voters whose electoral votes are a foregone conclusion under the current system,” said Senator Borrello. “Regional political differences are obscured and it increases assumptions by people in both parties that their vote for president is irrelevant.”

Assemblyman Goodell noted that the congressional district system could easily be implemented through the passage of legislation, without any amendments to the Constitution.

“Although the Constitution established the Electoral College system, it does not mandate the framework by which states must choose electors or allocate electoral votes. The congressional district method is a proven  alternative that would achieve the goal of strengthening New Yorkers’ influence in presidential campaigns. It is entirely consistent with the electoral process that our Founding Fathers originally designed, while reflecting more accurately the popular vote within the state,” said Assemblyman Andy Goodell.

The legislation advanced by Senator Borrello and Assemblyman Goodell stands in contrast to a measure Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law in 2016 that committed New York to the National Popular Vote compact, an interstate agreement in which member states pledge all of their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote nationwide, even if that candidate received few votes within the state.

Borrello and Goodell claim such an approach makes a mockery of the vote within each state, and dilutes the importance and value of individual state rights.

“Although the notion of essentially eliminating the Electoral College in favor of a nationwide popular vote has support, such a switch would actually incentivize candidates to further narrow their focus to just a few large states or a handful of major metropolitan areas. Smaller states and less densely populated regions of the country would be ignored,” said Senator Borrello.  “Our framers had the foresight to see that a two-step election process would be a check and balance against a few large states essentially choosing the president for the entire nation.”

Goodell noted that, “The method we are proposing would encourage candidates to campaign in New York because of the political diversity of its different regions. Both Republican and Democratic candidates would have the potential of winning electoral votes here. We’ve seen that happen in both Maine and Nebraska under this system.”

In 2008, Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District went to Democratic nominee Barack Obama although the rest of the state went to Republican nominee John McCain. Similarly, in 2016, Republican candidate Donald Trump won the 2nd Congressional District in Maine, while the remaining state votes went to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

“Our right to vote is one of America’s most cherished liberties. A key part of encouraging higher turnout is creating a system where citizens feel their vote has an impact,” said Assemblyman Goodell. “Making this change to our presidential election process would be a strong step in that direction.”

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Original Air Date: Tuesday, April 9, 2019

No Offense is a weekly half-hour long radio program produced by Jamestown, NY resident James Bliss and focusing on national, state, and/or local issues of note. Produced as a community radio program on WRFA LP, 107.9 FM in Jamestown, NY and broadcasting Tuesdays at 7pm.

James Bliss

Hillary Clinton (left) and Donald Trump.

NEW YORK – In an election in which there apparently were no foregone conclusions, New York proved to be one of few places where conventional wisdom held true in the presidential race: Democrat Hillary Clinton cruised to a win by popular vote with statewide Democratic enrollment on her side; Republican Donald Trump won the geographic battle of the state by picking up 46 county-level victories, primarily upstate.

Clinton received more than 4,143,000 votes in New York (nearly 59 percent), compared to trump receiving 2,637,000 (bout 37.5 percent).  Clinton’s victory in New York gave her 29 of the 228 total electoral votes she received in on Election Day.

Despite winning the popular vote in the U.S. by a margin of 200,000 – Clinton was unable to capture the 270 electoral votes required to become president, as stipulated by the U.S. Constitution.  Instead, it was Donald Trump who won the popular vote in enough states to receive a total of 279 electoral votes.  The Electoral College will cast its votes on Dec. 19.

Clinton’s small geographic pockets of victory include the counties with the largest population centers in the state (Erie County, New York City’s five counties and Albany County, to name a few), boosting her 1.5 million-vote victory over Trump in New York State.

In Chautauqua county, Trump dominated Clinton. Of the roughly 50,000 votes that were cast, Trump picked up 59 percent (29,418) of them.  Meanwhile, Clinton was able to only muster a total of 17,281, or about 35 percent. The total number of registered voters in the county for the 2016 election was 76,846, with 25,863 registered Democrats and 25,247 registered Republicans.