The idea that the Vice President can dictate–and that is the word–the outcome of the election by simply ignoring any Electors that do not favor his or her party, is a bit terrifying.
Maybe every party in every election sends an alternate slate of Electors, if their party did not win the vote. This would mean that in EVERY ELECTION the sitting Vice President, and the party they represent, would infallibly win, no matter who the people of America voted for.
If this is Mike Pence’s fear, it is a valid one. That is a horrible, horrible precedent. That is the path to dictatorship, in short order.
However, I would suggest this; I am no legal scholar, but it seems to me the law is pretty clear that slates of Electors specifically validated and certified by the various State legislatures are clearly valid. There is no legal reason to reject them.
What has happened, though, is that over the decades and perhaps centuries–the two that we have, which is not much in world historical terms–the State governments have gotten lazy. They have turned what was intended to be a LEGISLATIVE function–the will of the People being most directly, reliably and accountably conveyed through that single body in which our Founders intended most power to inhere–into an EXECUTIVE function. The Secretary of State, rather than the legislature, certifies the votes, and the Governor then rubber stamps it and off they go.
This means–and I made this point a month ago–that we need not fear this becoming a ritual to be endured every four years, where partisan politics trump what is good for America. No: it may well be a path BACK to the way the system was INTENDED to work by people who well knew how dishonest, power mongering, corruptible, and stupid people in masses tend to be, especially with the passage of time.
Governors run every four years. Parts of the Legislature stand every two years. That means relatively rapid accountability.
I think ethically and legally Mike Pence can render justice, and prevent Joe Biden’s fraud from ripping our public fabric even wider, and turning our nation over to a crook who committed a massive felony to get there in the first place, and who deserves for that and obvious corruption to be behind bars, not running the nation. Joe Biden could literally be arrested NOW, with the evidence found in Hunter Biden’s laptop. He certainly does not need to have his senile hands on the nuclear triggers.