1. "Faithless" Electors
1.1. Election law varies from state to state; accordingly, the process by which presidential electors cast their votes also varies.
1.2. The constitution doesn't allow a President to delay or cancel an election. But states can assign their electors without a vote. The GOP controls states with a combined 294 electoral votes. You need 270 to win.
1.3. SCOTUS CASE: Colorado vs. Baca
1.3.1. Baca was a Democratic elector in Colorado during the 2016 presidential election. Baca cast his ballot for Ohio’s then-Gov. John Kasich (R), despite Hillary Clinton’s having won Colorado’s popular vote. Baca sued after he was removed as an elector. He was replaced with a Clinton voter by Colorado’s Secretary of State.
1.3.2. the Founding Fathers weren’t keen on the idea that every farmer in the countryside should have be able to cast his vote without some supervision. There was also a concern that allowing a straight popular vote would give the more densely populated states an unfair advantage in presidential elections. The electoral college was set up as a buffer to ensure that America did not become a direct democracy.
1.4. Chiafalo v. Washington
1.4.1. May 13 SCOTUS arguments w/ Lessig
1.5. Two-Edged Sword: If states have complete power over electors, they could change rules and/or instruct them to subvert the majority vote. If electors are free, they could organize to subvert the majority
1.6. Times article focuses on chaos and let states decide
1.7. '16 article with basics of faithless electors
1.8. Lawrence Lessig argued SCOTUS case
1.9. Robert Alexander opinion piece referenced by Lessig
1.9.1. "Hamilton Elector Movement" in '16 advocated for electors to band together and choose a unity candidate, feeling Trump wasn't fit
1.9.2. 80 bipartisan electors asked James Clapper for a briefing on Russian interference in '16 which he denied. Federalist 68 devotes attention to the role of the Electoral College in protecting the country from foreign interference in our presidential selection
1.9.3. typically 10% of electors consider going rogue. In '16, 20% of republican electors considered it.
2. Voting Experts
2.1. Jenny Cohn
2.1.1. advocates for hand-marked paper ballots
2.2. Ari Berman
2.2.1. Article on various state rules that make registering/voting difficult, and COVID making worse
2.2.1.1. MOVE Texas, like every other political group, suspended in-person registration drives. “We’ve gone from registering 2,000 people a week to registering maybe 100,” Galloway told me in April. “Voter registration is decimated in Texas.”
2.2.1.2. Texas is one of 10 states with no way to do so online. Anyone who wants to sign up voters must be deputized by each county they work in, every two years. Texas has an estimated 5.5 million unregistered but eligible voters...The majority of them..are young, people of color, or both, who would likely favor Democrats if they voted
2.2.1.3. Texas limits mail-in voting for those under 65 to people who are out of town during the election, in jail, or have a “sickness or physical condition” that prevents them from going to the polls. Meanwhile, any voter 65 or older can request an absentee ballot with no questions asked
2.2.1.4. Voter ID laws are far more discriminatory when Department of Motor Vehicle offices are shuttered. Purges are more harmful when removed voters cannot easily reregister.
2.2.1.5. In Kentucky just 504 people registered in March compared to 7,256 the month before. In key states like Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia, the number of new voters who registered in March was half or less than it was during the same time period in 2016.
2.2.1.6. Fewer than 8 percent of people voted by mail in key states like Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
2.2.1.7. The United States Postal Service, which faces a major budget shortfall and attacks from the Trump administration (a major fundraiser for the Republican National Convention was just named postmaster general)
2.2.1.8. FLA '16: some core Democratic constituencies were far more likely to have those votes thrown out, even when ballots were returned in time to be counted. Mail voters who voted without the assistance of poll workers, had nearly 32,000 votes tossed over small mistakes like a forgotten envelope signature or because officials concluded a voter’s signature did not match one on file. Voters who were 18 to 21 had their ballots rejected more than eight times as often as voters 65 or older. Black, Hispanic, and other voters of color were more than twice as likely as white voters to have mail-in ballots rejected.
2.2.1.9. Many of the states most likely to decide the presidential election have substantial barriers to mail-in voting. In 16 states, mostly in the South and Northeast, to get an absentee ballot you must provide an approved reason, under penalty of perjury, why you can’t vote in person on election day. Nearly a dozen states have a requirement like Wisconsin’s that absentee voting be witnessed; Alabama goes so far as to mandate two witnesses or a notarized affidavit.
2.2.1.10. Thirty-one states do not offer a way for all citizens to request an absentee ballot online, forcing voters to mail forms to county registration offices.
2.2.1.11. In 26 states—including New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Virginia—election officials are not required to notify voters if there’s a problem with a received absentee ballot, such as a missing or mismatched signature, before throwing it out.
3. Voting Machine Manipulation
3.1. Jennifer Cohn reports on votes being "lost" in African American precincts of Georgia
3.2. Cohen thread on Rove's alleged rigging of Ohio Presidential election '04
3.3. Karl Rove Vote-Switching Empire
4. In-Person Voting Disruption
4.1. GOP Voting Booth Patrols
4.1.1. Trump hiring 50,000 to patrol voting booths
4.2. Closing Booths, Machine dysfunction
4.2.1. Georgia closed 214 precincts after SCOTUS gutted Voting Rights Act