TO THE EDITOR:
 
Stephen Marche is from Canada, a constitutional monarchy. America grew from 13 former colonies who overthrew the king and charted their own future. Marche purports to dive into a little known American election scenario and reach the right conclusions. Respectfully, if Canadians are to be anxious about US contingent elections (last held in 1837), Americans were appalled by the Canadian Prime Minister putting a hold on private bank accounts of long-haul truck drivers in 2022. Canadians might be thinking, ‘she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.’ Touche.
 
What should Canadians want from a US President? For starters, going eye to eye with the world’s dictators. How concerned were our northern neighbors about Ukraine when Orange Man was in office? Did they breathe a bit easier about North Korea? How about border security, Keystone Pipeline and overall energy independence? 

When he wasn’t sending mean tweets, Trump took care of business. And he did so while the Deep State and leftists staged multiple kangaroo courts that cost taxpayers a fortune and came to nothing. And while Marche is correct that Americans can be forgiving (what First World people aren’t?), the reasons have to do with hypocrisy of the media industrial complex and the Biden Justice Department. Trump faces document charges that are not illegal for a President; Biden is getting a pass for having taken documents as Vice-President, which is absolutely illegal, no exceptions. America’s most renowned legal scholars dismiss the New York business records charges. And the court parade in Georgia has been pushed into 2025. Regarding that “rape defamation” case, there’s this: “NEW YORK, Sept 27 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court set aside a judge's ruling that Donald Trump could be sued for defamation by E. Jean Carroll after denying he raped her...” 

As for America’s 2024 presidential election, what Marche calls “matters for historical curiosity” have always been taken seriously by those of us who understand basic civics. For starters, “the will of the majority” that matters in US presidential elections is the will of the majority of STATES. America doesn’t have national elections or a peoples’ president. The winning candidate secures support from multiple regions of the country. POTUS stands for “President of the United STATES.” The “will of the people” is expressed twice in every state, in primary and general elections. That’s how it works in a representative republic. Meanwhile, those "election deniers” Marche references come from a long line of objectors that include Hillary Clinton and the Washington Post.
 
The last thing the Electoral College is, in the 21st Century, is “arcane.” In 2020 we experienced election controversies in six different states. Of the 20 neighboring states, not one was impacted ... expressly because the Electoral College operated as intended. 

Let’s talk about (blue) California and (red) Texas (it used to be the opposite), red Wyoming and blue Vermont. The only question the Constitution asks is: do small and large states have an equal right to exist? Do they all deserve a place at the table when it comes to governance? The Constitution says ‘Yes.’ And by the way, Wyoming has three electors, California has 54 — more than the total number of electors representing the 12 least populous states, half of which are blue.
​ 
America’s Founders created operating documents for the long haul. Today the country covers 7 time zones and is the desired home of millions of dreamers the world over. We wish Canadians well, but let’s tend to our own houses.

Roberta Schlechter
​Portland, Oregon

FLORIDA
​
Re: HB 67
Chair Fabricio, Vice-Chair Barnaby and members of the Ethics, Elections and Open
Government Subcommittee:

As you consider HB 67-proposing that the Sunshine State join the National Popular Vote
Interstate Compact (NPVIC), please keep the following in mind.

America doesn’t have national elections and we don’t have a peoples’ president. Unlike
Canada, where the central government created the provinces, in America it is the states
that ratified the Constitution and birthed the federal government. Federalism, of course,
is a formal power sharing agreement stipulated in the Constitution, with subsequent
amendments and Supreme Court rulings flowing from it. The Constitution vests in the
States the authority for election processes.

Electoral College is a Key Part of Checks and Balances
The Electoral College is but one layer in America’s elegant election infrastructure.
Among other things it provides for transparency by building a legal wall around each
State as a safeguard against election irregularities in any other state.

Americans remember the 2020 election controversies in a handful of states (Arizona,
Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin). Thanks to the Electoral
College, election night tallies in the 20 bordering States, including Florida, but also: New
Mexico, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Indiana, California, Idaho,
Oregon, Utah, New York, Ohio, Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, Illinois,
Iowa and Minnesota, were unaffected by those disagreements.

The Trifecta Blue States that have joined the Compact have done so in violation of their
own state constitutions. The FLORIDA STATE CONSTITUTION, ARTICLE 7, SECTION 2,
stipulates: ”Electors.—Only a citizen of the United States who is at least eighteen years
of age and who is a permanent resident of the state, if registered as provided by law,
shall be an elector of the county where registered.”

NPV Confiscates Florida's Votes!
But wait. NPVIC proposes to confiscate the electoral votes from Florida—votes cast to
represent your eligible voters alone--and hand them off to the winner of votes cast by
hundreds of millions of people, none of whom meet Florida’s eligibility requirements.

Essentially NPVIC could turn Florida electors into the equivalent of “faithless electors.”
National Public Radio (July 2023) reported on the 2020 Supreme Court ruling in Chifalo v
Washington, saying, " Writing for the court, Justice Elena Kagan ... said Electoral
College delegates have no ground for reversing the statewide popular vote.” This runs
headlong into what the NPVIC scheme proposes.

Legislatures ARE Required to Obey State and Federal Constitutions
In the SCOTUS Moore v Harper (June 2023) decision, the Court ruled, among other things, that: Legislatures ARE constrained by the Federal AND State Constitutions, and; Both State and Federal Courts DO have the authority "and the obligation"; to step in (when a valid lawsuit exists) and
overturn actions by the Legislature that violate either the State or Federal Constitutions
when it comes to Federal elections.

No lawsuits have been filed against NPVIC at this time because the Compact has failed
to take effect. If that ever happens the legal challenges will come down like a ton of
bricks. Let’s hope Florida, and the country, never need to be put through such an ordeal.

Please do not advance HB 67.

Respectfully,

Roberta L. Schlechter
Portland, OR