By Paul Engel
May 10, 2024
- There’s a lie that has been repeated so many times, people think it’s black letter law.
- Based on that lie, Maine has illegally joined 16 other states in a compact to elect the President by national popular vote.
- This national popular vote myth is more than confusion about how we elect the President, it’s an attempt to destroy the republic.
Maine’s governor allowed an unconstitutional piece of legislation to become “law” without her signature. LD 1578, An Act to Adopt an Interstate Compact to Elect the President of the United States by National Popular Vote is not only foolish and unconstitutional, but the latest attempt to change the United States from a union of republics into a monolithic democracy. It seems, just as with the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments in 1913, states are not only willing to give up their sovereignty, but to deprive their citizens of their rights in pursuit of socialism. After all, I believe it was Vladimir Lenin who said “Democracy is indispensable to socialism.”
I opened this article with several statements you may have found bold, even unwarranted. Let me start by proving my point.
The National Popular Vote Compact
When I say that LD 1578 is unconstitutional, I’m not talking about the appointment of presidential electors. The legislation claims to join “an Interstate Compact to Elect the President of the United States by National Popular Vote”. There’s one serious problem with that: Maine, in fact no state, has the Constitutional authority to enter into such a compact without the approval of Congress.
No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, … enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power,
U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 10, Clause 3
This whole National Popular Vote movement is just another attempt to get around the Constitution. In this case, the purpose appears to be to destroy the structure of this union. Since Article I, Section 10, Clause 3 of the Constitution prohibits Maine, and the 16 other states who claim to have joined this compact, from entering into such an agreement, this legislation is void, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be used to destroy this nation.
Not only is this movement an attempt to convert the United States from a republic of republics, as required by Article VI, Section 4 of the Constitution, into a democracy, I see in the mantra of those who are supporting it, the call for socialism that Vladimir Lenin warned us about: To replace the decision of the individual states with a collective voice driven by those who seek communism and control. In fact, this whole National Popular Vote is nothing by a lie.
National Popular Vote Lie
A lie repeated often enough becomes the truth.
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Although often attributed to Vladimir Lenin, the origins of this idea can be traced all the back to an 1869 book entitled The Crown of a Life, where Isa Blagden said:
If a lie is only printed often enough, it becomes a quasi-truth, and if such a truth is repeated often enough, it becomes an article of belief, a dogma, and men will die for it.
Isa Blagden, The Crown of a Life, 1869
There is a lie that has been repeated in the United States since before I was born. This lie has passed beyond quasi-truth, article of belief, and even dogma, to be considered black letter law. What lie could hold such sway over the entire citizenry of the United States? That the people elect the President.
I have written repeatedly about the myth of the National Popular Vote and the process by which we elect the President and Vice-President of the United States, yet the lie persists. This lie has become such a part of our political lives that the ballots in two-thirds of our states repeat the lie every four years, claiming that the people are casting ballots for President, when that’s blatantly and observably not true.
Until recently, most states pointed out on their ballot that the people were not voting for candidates for President and Vice-President, but for electors pledged to those candidates. With all of the media and political focus on the non-existent “national popular vote”, states started pretending that the citizens were voting for candidates, even though those states were using the election to determine a slate of presidential electors. Thus promoting the lie by committing fraud (bait and switch), on their citizens. I believe the lie not only exists, but continues to grow for one central reason: Our general ignorance of the Constitution of the United States and the constitutional role of the presidency. Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 clearly states:
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.
U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Clause 2
It’s the states that appoint electors and it’s these electors who will eventually elect the President and Vice-President, not the people. While the process was established in Article II, Section 1, it was modified with the Twelfth Amendment.
The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves;
U.S. Constitution, Amendment XII
In fact, the idea that people would vote for President and Vice-President did not even exist in the Constitution until January 1964 with the ratification of the Twenty-Fourth Amendment.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
U.S. Constitution, Amendment XXIV (emphasis added)
Yet do just a quick web search and you’ll find dozens of articles talking about the popular vote for President going all the way back to the 1860 election. With Maine’s recent decision to join in the lie, it once again grows stronger.
Maine Joins the National Popular Vote Compact
The Maine legislature passed LD 1578, sending it to the governor for her signature. By neither signing, nor returning the bill for ten days, under the Maine Constitution, the bill becomes law.
If the bill or resolution shall not be returned by the Governor within 10 days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to the Governor, it shall have the same force and effect as if the Governor had signed it unless the Legislature by their adjournment prevent its return,
Maine Constitution, Article VI, Part Third, Section 2
Because Maine uses ranked-choice voting, this makes the process of appointing their electors rather convoluted.
In a presidential election determined by ranked-choice voting when the National Popular Vote for President Act governs the appointment of presidential electors, the following procedures are used to determine the presidential vote count, except that, notwithstanding subsection 3, a statewide tie between the candidates in the final round may not be resolved and the provisions of subsection 4 regarding the modification of the ballot and count are permitted.
Until the states illegally claim that the National Popular Vote Compact is in force, Maine will continue to appoint their electors with the ranked-choice system they have in place. (Since the NPV Compact does not have the consent of Congress, the states are not allowed to join the compact. And I’m pretty sure it is illegal for the states to follow an agreement they have not legally joined.) However, once Maine claims the National Popular Vote does govern their elections, they still go through the ranked-choice voting process. Why? After all, since the citizens of Maine are no longer choosing their presidential electors, why go through all the time, effort, and confusion of ranked-choice voting for presidential electors when it will not impact the outcome of the election? According to §803 of LD 1578,
As soon as possible after the canvass of the presidential count under section 723-A, subsection 7 is determined, the Governor shall send a certificate of determination containing the names of the electors and the statewide number of votes for each presidential slate that received votes in the final round to the Archivist of the United States under state seal. This final round vote is deemed to be the determination of the vote in the State for the purposes of section 1304.
So the governor is going to send the certificate of appointment electors to the Archivist of the United States, as required by another unconstitutional law, 3 USC §5
(1) Certification.-Not later than the date that is 6 days before the time fixed for the meeting of the electors, the executive of each State shall issue a certificate of ascertainment of appointment of electors, under and in pursuance of the laws of such State providing for such appointment and ascertainment enacted prior to election day.
3 USC §5 (a)(1)
However, when those electors vote, they are not doing so based on the decision of the citizens of Maine, rather they would be required by law to vote based on the winner of the fictitious national popular vote.
Notwithstanding subsection 2, when the National Popular Vote for President Act governs the appointment of presidential electors, the presidential electors shall cast their ballots for the presidential slate designated as the national popular vote winner pursuant to section 1304.
In other words, you can easily have a republican slate of electors being forced to vote for a democratic candidate, or visa-versa. Remember, the Governor has already sent to the Archivist of the United States a certificate listing not only the slate of electors, but the number of votes for each Presidential slate. This means Maine’s fraud will be a matter of public record.
Imagine you are one of those electors who were chosen by the people to represent one candidate, but are compelled by law to vote for someone else. What if you are a citizen of Maine, having gone through the process of ranked-choice voting, only to have your vote ignored because your state lied to you about the national popular vote and decided to place the wishes of the rest of the country above those of their citizens, all in pursuit of a lie. Would that not be a fraudulent election?
Conclusion
This lie of a national popular vote has taken its latest victims, the citizens of Maine. Your legislature decided to subvert the expressed will of their citizens for the collective will of that nation, and your governor did nothing to stop it. Maine is a beautiful and unique state that I’ve had the pleasure of visiting several times. Maybe the people of Maine want to give up their uniqueness, their independence, and simply be joined to the collective. If so, that would be a sad state of affairs indeed. The decision of Maine, and of the 16 other states that have joined this illegal compact, shows not only the utter failure of our education system to teach the Constitution and basic civics, but the abandonment of our Constitutional Republic. It’s more than just the citizens choosing the President, rather than the states. This move toward a national popular vote is another step in turning the President into a king. After all, when the President is a chief executive, serving the states as parties to the compact that is the United States Constitution, his role is limited, defined, and controlled by the states. By placing the choice of President in the hands of the people, the states would longer have any say in the role of the President. Rather than the administrator envisioned by the Framers and enshrined in the Constitution, we will have created a man of the people, doing what he thinks the people want, without limitation or restriction. But the Presidency is not a position of the people, rather it is effectively held by a political party and their policies. As George Washington warned us:
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.
George Washington’s Farewell Address 1796
Thank you Maine, for not only selling your citizens’ rights for a political bowl of pottage, but for helping to sell the entire republic into the servitude of collectivism, socialism, and slavery. I hope you can live with the consequences of your decision. Sadly, I believe the rest of the nation will not only have to live with those consequences, but many may need to die to return us to the land of the free.
© 2024 Paul Engel – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Paul Engel: paul@constitutionstudy.com
