=-=What happens when a state can’t decide on its electors==

How Vice President Richard Nixon handled Hawaii's disputed electoral votes in 1960 is worth remembering

by Herb Jackson, Roll Call, October 26, 2020

John F. Kennedy barely edged Richard Nixon in the 1960 popular vote, winning by fewer than 117,000 votes, or less than two-tenths of 1 percentage point.

He won enough states, though, that when Congress convened on Jan. 6, 1961, to officially certify who would be inaugurated two weeks later, Kennedy had an undisputed lead of nearly 100 votes in the Electoral College.

That meant three disputed electoral votes from Hawaii, which could have been a source of controversy in a close contest and tested our political system, didn’t really matter.

How Nixon handled those disputed votes is worth remembering, however, at a time when President Donald Trump is telling his supporters that the only way he loses is if there’s rampant fraud, and lawyers around the country are scrambling to brush up on the intricacies of the Electoral Count Act of 1887.

Hawaii was a new state in 1960 holding its first presidential election — a concept that’s also worth remembering as the possibility of adding Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia to the union is portrayed as somehow outrageous.

Turnout topped 93 percent in Hawaii. The state’s result was close, just as the nation’s was overall. Nixon initially appeared to be the winner by 141 votes, and the Republican governor declared him the winner. But a judge granted the Kennedy team’s request for a recount. As it dragged on, the judge rejected GOP attempts to stop the count. When the mid-December date came for the Electoral College to meet — this year it’s Dec. 14 — both Republican and Democratic electors sent their votes to Washington to be counted.

Kennedy eventually was declared the winner in the Hawaii recount by 115 votes, but the two sets of certifications were waiting when the joint session of Congress convened. Democrats, including Rep. Daniel K. Inouye, were ready to lodge an objection if the GOP slate was counted, but the presiding officer — the Senate president, who also is the vice president: i.e., Nixon — pushed the issue aside.

“He resolved it in a rather statesmanlike way by using parliamentary procedure,” State University of New York professor James A. Gardner said in a recent webinar organized by the New York State Bar Association. “He asked for unanimous consent that the votes of the Democratic electors would count. So he resolved this against himself.” …

read … What happens when a state can’t decide on its electors https://www.rollcall.com/2020/10/26/we-the-people-what-happens-when-a-state-cant-decide-on-its-electors/

http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/26628/1960-Hawaii-Sends-Two-Slates-to-Electoral-College.aspx

>>12029612

Obama's own state of Hawaii sent two sets of electors to congress….

> When the mid-December date came for the Electoral College to meet — this year it’s Dec. 14 — both Republican and Democratic electors sent their votes to Washington to be counted.

>Kennedy eventually was declared the winner in the Hawaii recount by 115 votes, but the two sets of certifications were waiting when the joint session of Congress convened. Democrats, including Rep. Daniel K. Inouye, were ready to lodge an objection if the GOP slate was counted, but the presiding officer — the Senate president, who also is the vice president: i.e., Nixon — pushed the issue aside.

>>12029892

are you done crying yet?

>>12029941

>SolarWinds

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/14/politics/us-agencies-hack-solar-wind-russia/index.html

Officials suspect a breach may have also occurred to the computer systems at the Treasury Department and US Postal Service, according to a senior administration official, who noted those investigations are ongoing.

Asked whether USPS system was breached, a spokesman for the Postal Service told CNN, "The U.S. Postal Service was made aware of the cyber incident at SolarWinds by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Dec. 13, 2020.As with any notification of this nature, USPS is conducting a thorough review of its systems and processes to safeguard its network and ensure the integrity of its systems."

>>12030104

SolarWinds Says Hack Affected 18,000 Customers, Including Two Major Government Agencies

BY MEGHAN ROOS ON 12/14/20 AT 2:14 PM EST

https://www.newsweek.com/solarwinds-says-hack-affected-18000-customers-including-two-major-government-agencies-1554635

At least two U.S. federal agencies are believed to have been targeted by a cyberattack perpetrated earlier this year.

SolarWinds, an IT company with a customer base that includes several federal and state agencies, said in a Monday U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it notified about 33,000 customers of a cyberattack involving its Orion products on Sunday. The notifications triggered an emergency response from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which instructed all agencies using SolarWinds' Orion products to "disconnect or power down" those products as the extent of the threat was assessed.

The U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of the Treasury were both targeted in the attack, according to the Associated Press. A spokesperson with the Department of Commerce confirmed in a statement shared with Newsweek that one of its bureaus was impacted.

>>12030133

>https://www.newsweek.com/solarwinds-says-hack-affected-18000-customers-including-two-major-government-agencies-1554635

coincidence we hit 300,000 mark of covid 'deaths' today?

In its Monday SEC filing, SolarWinds said Orion products that were either downloaded or updated between March and June of this year may have been affected by the cyberattack.

"SolarWinds currently believes the actual number of customers that may have had an installation of the Orion products that contained this vulnerability to be fewer than 18,000," the company's filing said.

SolarWinds said it is investigating to determine which of its customers were impacted and whether or not any of the hacking attempts were successful.Though the company says on its website that its more than 300,000 customers include federal and state government agencies such as the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Justice, the company did not specify in its Monday filing which customers were believed to have been affected.