The last time it almost happened. We really need the direct election of President by the popular vote. Of course getting there is probably impossible.
snip
...
The anti-Kennedy Dixiecrats came up with a three-pronged approach to unseating Kennedy in the Electoral College in a plan they entitled “Plan To Give the South a Partial Vote in the Affairs of the Nation”. The first prong was to try and unite the Electors from all eleven Southern states into forcing Kennedy to assert the primacy of “states’ rights” which would allow the status quo racial discrimination of “separate but equal” to continue in the South. If Kennedy refused, the plan was to try and force the Democratic ticket to flip, making Johnson the President and Kennedy his Vice President. The final prong was to try and make a deal with the Republicans by inviting all the Republican Electors to a meeting in Chicago where they would choose from a list of “outstanding Southern men” who would then be elected President by the Electoral College.
At least one Republican Elector from Oklahoma saw the possibility of combining with the Dixiecrats to at minimum deny Kennedy the 269 Electoral College votes he needed, leaving the election to be decided by the House of Representatives. That Elector tried to enlist all the other 218 Republican Electors in an attempt to get them to switch their vote to Harry Byrd, one of those “outstanding Southern men” the Dixiecrats had already proposed. Meanwhile, Nixon’s team was trying and failing to get the Illinois State Board of Elections to certify the Republican slate of Electors instead of the Democratic one.
...
a tip of the hat to Dewayne
Comments