Certification and All That

I figured for completeness and all, I should post about the final certification of the electoral college results.

Congress Certifies Bush’s Win After Protest
(Joanne Kenen, Reuters via Yahoo! News)

The rare objection to vote certification, the first filed in decades, forced the House and Senate to halt their joint session, usually a routine and ceremonial affair. Each chamber then debated the objection, and rejected it, the Senate by a 74-1 vote, the House 267-31. The state-by-state certification was completed a few hours later.

Bush got 286 electoral votes, Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry 251 and North Carolina Democrat John Edwards, Kerry’s running mate, got one electoral vote for president.

(via DrudgeReport)

I was happy to see the challenge, not because I saw any values in the merits, Bush clearly won Ohio, but just because it shows some of the arcane details of the process, and that is always fun. Too bad it wasn’t able to be a bit more disruptive.

If we had the exact same results in the electoral college, but the Democrats actually were in the majority in both houses of congress, would they have the guts to use a challenge like this to change the results of the election? I think they would not. Even if the leadership was in favor, I think there would be enough defections to prevent it. But imagine the hullaballoo that would cause if it did happen! It may not ever happen, but the fact that it is completely possible by the procedures in place is very interesting and fun.

If any party that had the majority in both houses was unified enough and didn’t give a damn about precident and the popular will, they could always refuse to ratify the results whenever the other party won the presidency, thus throwing the election into the House of Representatives where they could pick their own guy. (Or under certain situations, someone else entirely.) Fun stuff. Fun stuff.

I must also say though that I am dissapointed that John L. Kerry did not get 31 electoral votes. He certainly deserved them. John F Kerry robbed him!

Good for John Edwards with his 3rd place showing though! Perhaps he will try for 2nd place next time around!