RPNM Takes a Stand On Today’s Electoral College Votes

As the legal proceedings arising from the November 3 presidential election continue to work their way through our nation’s judicial system, we requested that the New Mexico Republicans who pledged to vote for President Trump and Vice President Pence in the Electoral College to convene on December 14, cast their ballots and send them to Congress, where the Electoral votes are to be opened and counted beginning on January 6.

Of course, there is precedent for our Republican Electors meeting on December 14, even as the Democrat Electors for New Mexico also meet.

Democrat Electors pledged to John F. Kennedy convened in Hawaii in 1960, at the same time as Republicans, even though the Governor had certified Richard Nixon as the winner.  In the end, Hawaii’s electoral votes were awarded to President Kennedy, even though he did not win the state until 11 days after his Electors cast their votes.

The legitimacy and good sense of two sets of Electors meeting on December 14 to cast competing votes for President and Vice President, with the conflict to be later sorted out by the courts and Congress, was pointed out by prominent Democrat lawyers, Van Jones and Larry Lessig, in an essay published last month on CNN.com.

To the extent that the results in New Mexico might remain in doubt, just as the Democrat Electors met in Hawaii in 1960 while awaiting a final resolution of that State’s vote, so too the Republican Electors met this year on December 14 as we await a final resolution of New Mexico’s five electoral votes.