The 12^th Amendment Plan: A Pence Path to a Contingent Election

In the past several days pro-Trump pundits began floating the idea that Vice-President/President of the Senate, Mike Pence, actually possesses plenary power to accept or reject Electoral votes he believes are fraudulent or fraudulently certified.  These Trump-supporters point to the 12^th Amendment as the basis for this allegation. However, an unbiased reading of the 12^th Amendment does not at first glance support this perspective. But... recent scholarship makes a compelling case for the assertion that the 12^th Amendment indeed grants the Vice President/President of the Senate such plenary powers over acceptance of Electoral votes.  And if this is true, and if VP Pence were to nullify sufficient slates of Electors (even if he did not endorse competing slates of Republican Electors), the 2020 election would then transition into what is called a Contingent Election in the House of Representatives – the same form of election that elected Thomas Jefferson President. And a Contingent Election will re-elect Donald Trump – because such an election assigns each State only one vote – and Republicans control the majority of the votes because they control the majority of the States. 

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