Alternate Slate of Electors Could Lead to Trump Win, Adviser Says

Alternate Slate of Electors Could Lead to Trump Win, Adviser Says
President Joe Biden (L) and then-President Donald Trump in file photographs. (Getty Images; AP Photo)
Zachary Stieber
12/14/2020
Updated:
12/15/2020

A White House adviser on Dec. 14 predicted that alternate groups of electors would vote in multiple states, potentially leading to President Donald Trump winning reelection.

“The only date in the Constitution is Jan. 20. So we have more than enough time to right the wrong of this fraudulent election result and certify Donald Trump as the winner of the election,” Stephen Miller said on “Fox & Friends,” referring to Inauguration Day.

“As we speak today, an alternate slate of electors in the contested states is going to vote, and we’re going to send those results up to Congress.”

Under the Electoral College system, electors are meeting in their respective states on Dec. 14 to cast votes for the next American president.

The votes are then conveyed to Congress, which meets early next year to count them.

Usually, electors for the party whose candidate gets the most votes in a state participates in the meetings and votes for that candidate.

But the electors for the other major party candidate can cast votes for their candidate, alleging he was the true winner.

That happened later on Dec. 14 in Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.

President Donald Trump's senior adviser Stephen Miller waves to supporters prior to a Marine One departure from the South Lawn of the White House on Aug. 6, 2020. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump's senior adviser Stephen Miller waves to supporters prior to a Marine One departure from the South Lawn of the White House on Aug. 6, 2020. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)
Terje Anderson (L), one of the three members of Vermont's Electoral College, casts his vote at the Statehouse in Montpelier, Vt., on Dec. 14, 2020. (Wilson Ring/AP Photo)
Terje Anderson (L), one of the three members of Vermont's Electoral College, casts his vote at the Statehouse in Montpelier, Vt., on Dec. 14, 2020. (Wilson Ring/AP Photo)

Georgia GOP Chair David Shafer said the move was due to a lawsuit from Trump’s campaign pending in the state.

“Had we not met today and cast our votes, the president’s pending election contest would have been effectively mooted. Our action today preserves his rights under Georgia law,” he said in a statement.

The Pennsylvania GOP Chair Bernadette Comfort said the vote was undertaken “to preserve any legal claims that may be presented going forward.”

The move was fashioned after the 1960 presidential election, which saw incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon win Hawaii. While legal challenges from Democrats were pending, Democratic electors met to cast a vote for John F. Kennedy.

Miller said the alternate electors are important in the event the Trump campaign wins cases in court between Dec. 14 and January.

“That means that if we win these cases in the courts, that we can direct that the ultimate slate of electors be certified. The state legislatures in Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, can do the same. And likewise, Congress has that opportunity as well to do the right thing,” Miller said.

He asserted that three “constitutional defects” led to Trump losing: failure to carry out proper signature matching in Georgia, ballots cast in Wisconsin by people who weren’t actually “indefinitely confined,” and uneven treatment of voters in Pennsylvania through the so-called curing of ballots.

“Those three violations alone make Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 election,” Miller said.

The Biden team didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Correction: A previous version of this article inaccurately outlined details about electors. The Epoch Times regrets the error.