The President wins a majority of the Electoral College while losing a majority of the popular vote.
Why a nightmare? Let's review:
1. Your vote, technically speaking, is not for either Obama or Romney but for a slate of electors, appointed by the legislatures of each state, who are pledged but not legally bound to cast their vote for either Obama or Romney.
2. Then, the election results are certified by the Secretaries of State, and the winning slate of electors is assigned to represent the state when the Electoral College convenes.
3. The electors in each state vote, certify their results, and send the results to Washington, where the President of the Senate (i.e., Vice President) reads each state's vote count in front of the full Congress. The candidate with a majority of electoral votes is declared the winner. If neither candidate has a majority of electoral votes, or in the event of a tie, the House of Representatives chooses the President immediately, with each state allocated one vote.
4. In that scenario, the first candidate to get 26 votes wins the Presidency. The GOP currently controls 33 state delegations in the House. See where I'm going here?
But here's where it get interesting: Article 3 of the Federal Code allows Congress to challenge electors on the grounds that they were not "lawfully certified" and/or not certified "under and in pursuance of the laws" in each state. This has happened before, and it's relatively simple to trigger: One senator and one House member must make the challenge, and each House of Congress must debate for two hours. A simple majority is all that's needed to uphold the challenge. Now do you see where I am going here?
Now flash forward some ten weeks or so, and imagine: a Teabilly Congress returns to Washington in January having won a majority of the popular vote: The righteousness of conservatism vindicated yet again! But if that's the case, and it always is with these people, then how could on earth could they have lost the Electoral College? What do you think their answer will be?
Forget about court challenges in the weeks after the election---if the election results in states like Wisconsin or Iowa or Colorado are especially tight, and a Republican majority still controls either house of Congress next year, I wouldn't put it past them to simply move to disqualify whole slates of state electors on charges of rampant Democrat voter fraud. It won't matter if each state's voting results have been certified by their respective Secretaries of State---any group of people who can convince themselves that the President and the United Nations are conspiring to confiscate their guns and their golf courses in a second Obama administration can convince themselves of anything, and official state-government seals be damned.
It gets better: If the GOP should end up controlling both houses of Congress next January, they can vote to keep disqualifying enough Democrat-pledged electors until neither candidate has a majority of them. Then proceed to step 4 outlined above, and swear in Vice President Ryan.
I wish I could say this is beyond the realm of possibility, but, well, crazy people will do crazy things. Granted, they could pull the same stunt if they lose a majority of the popular vote, too, but I think it would at least make a few of them think twice before pulling the trigger. Bet we're in for interesting times either way!
---Baron V
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