Alex Daugherty at McClatchcyDC by way of Richard Winger at Ballot Access News:
Bernie Sanders doesn’t want to be president, but he could snatch three electoral votes in Vermont.
That’s because Vermont is one of seven states that allow voters to write in anyone for president, even if they have no intention of running for office.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are two of the most disliked presidential candidates ever, and Google searches for write-in ballots are skyrocketing.
Vermont is one of the states asking Google about write-in votes the most. A write-in vote for Sanders in Vermont would be treated like a vote for Trump or Clinton.
Only Vermont, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Iowa and Oregon allow voters to write in anyone for president.
The majority of states, 34, also allow write-in votes, but the candidate must complete paperwork to have votes counted.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article108228112.html#storylink=cpy
Interesting question about this posed in a comment on Ballot Access News (not by me):
33 on October 14, 2016 at 6:30 pm said:
Would that be constitutional?
“The Congress may determine the Time of chusing [sic] the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.” – Article II, Section 1, Clause 4 of the Constitution
This seems to strongly imply that all electors have to be “chosen” on Election Day, which is “Time of choosing” specified by Congress and which is uniform nationwide.
Of course, it usually takes time to determine who won, but that’s just the time it takes to tabulate the votes and certify the result. But the actual “chusing” is still done on Nov. 8th. That doesn’t seem quite the same as “choosing somebody on Nov. 8 who will then choose the electors at a later date.”
Richard,
Interesting possibilty!
In the event it happens, hopefully his appointment of the electors will occur Clinton publicly announces that she’s made the cabinet picks he’ll presumably use those electoral appointments as leverage to get.
Probably the Secretary of State would ask him to appoint three electors. He would then probably appoint the same people who were the electors for the Democratic Party of Vermont, and they would probably then vote for Hillary Clinton in December 2016.
If Bernie were to win Vermont, how would the electoral college members be selected to represent him?