Idaho and Virginia in protest over legitimacy of Obama re-election

Two states are in the news today regarding the re-election of President Barack Obama. In Idaho, Republican State Senator Sheryl Nuxoll has chosen a discredited hypothesis that is popular on some of the Tea Party websites which states that if enough states refuse to participate in the Electoral College, Republican Governor Mitt Romney still has a chence to occupy the Oval Office, come this January.

In spite of winning fifty-one percent of the popular vote, Nuxoll still maintains that the legitimacy of Obama's re-election can still be challenged.

A report filed by ThinkProgress stated that Nuxoll linked to a website that still promotes the now-debunked idea of an Electoral College boycott, and was quoted as saying,

"…states are going to have to stand up for our individual rights and for our collective rights”

She further accused Obama of depriving citizens of their freedoms.

Emily Phelps, representing the 'Constitutional Accountability Center,' referred to a story on their website that outlines the details from an article which appeared on the conservative news outlet, 'World Net Daily,' where Judson Phillips, founder and CEO of the 'Tea Party Nation,' tries to justify why a quorum can be reached by the Electoral College.

From the CAC website,

By Phillips’ reasoning:

“Mitt Romney carried 24 states. We need to have conservative activists from all over the nation contact the electors, the Republican Party and the secretary of state in all of these states and tell them not to participate in the Electoral College when it meets on Dec. 17.

If we can get 17 of those states (just over one-third) to refuse to participate, the Electoral College will have no quorum. Then, as the Constitution directs, the election goes to the House of Representatives. That is how we can still pull this election out and make Mitt Romney president in January.”

The CAC responded with,

"There’s only one problem. The 12th Amendment doesn’t say that at all. Here’s the text itself:

The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have such majority, then…the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President.

But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states…

A quick reading shows that Phillips has his voting bodies backward. There is no quorum requirement for the Electoral College."

World Net Daily is a right-wing site that focuses on conspiracy theories such as 'birtherism.'

In Virginia, Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli told Brian Wilson and Cheri Jacobus of WMAL radio that he was in agreement that an investigation should be launched because Obama lost to Romney in all of the states that required a photo ID to vote, but still won re-election.

ThinkProgress reports that since taking office in 2010, Cuccinelli has lost lost most of the major legal cases he has brought to the court.

The story quotes part of the interview between Cucinelli and radio host Jacobus, which you can listen to here:

Cucinelli is planning to run for Governor of Virginia in 2013. For more information, details and statistics, you can read about the Idaho story here, and the Virginia story here.

Al Stefanelli

Al serves on the Board of Directors for The Clergy Project, and is the former Georgia State Director for American Atheists, Inc. He is a retired journalist and the author of "Free Thoughts - A Collection Of Essays By An American Atheist" and "A Voice Of Reason In An Unreasonable World - The Rise Of Atheism On Planet Earth." Al began writing in 1985, starting with the New York Times. In 1993 he joined a McClatchy newspaper, writing a weekly column for ten years. His writing continues to be widely distributed on the Internet and in print. He also produced and hosted a weekly syndicated radio broadcast for three years and was the founder and President of the former United Atheist Front, Inc., which functioned as a civil rights organization. Al is a former Southern Baptist Pastor, having served two churches and as pulpit supply for three counties. Currently, he writes for The God Discussion, hosts his own blog on WordPress, submits content to a variety of publications, and co-hosts "American Heathen Radio" and "Reap Sow Radio." Al lives in Peachtree City, GA., a suburb of Atlanta.

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