By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
NOV. 20, 2018 | The hullabaloo over voter fraud all across the country, we suspect, is much ado about not much. Yet here in Georgia, we’ve heard of some who say they were, in one way or another, blocked from voting. Most election officials are upright citizens, and wouldn’t stand for it if they suspected fraud.
However, it wasn’t always so. Down in Telfair County, back in 1947, the dead were voted. Reporter George Goodwin recognized the fraud when he saw that many of those voting had done so alphabetically. Checking the cemetery records, he found them all dead. For this solid reporting, Mr. Goodwin won the Pulitzer Prize for The Atlanta Journal for uncovering this story.
While stealing elections via voting the dead may be one way of insuring that your candidate wins, the U.S. Congress has a provision that could threaten some duly-elected persons to be seated in Washington.
We heard about this on Georgia Public Radio’s Operation Rewind, as this panel of media people talked about the results of the recent Georgia election. The provision concerns who determines the winner for a seat in both houses of the Congress.
The rule that applies reads: “Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members.”
You read that right. Each chamber may exclude or refuse to seat a member-elect. Because of unusual circumstances, this has happened, though not often.
- Louis C. Wyman(R–New Hampshire) was declared the victor of the US Senate contest in 1974 in New Hampshire by a narrow margin on Election Day (355 votes). A first recount gave the election instead to John A. Durkin (D–New Hampshire) by ten votes, but a second recount swung the result back to Wyman by only two votes. The state of New Hampshire certified Wyman as the winner, but Durkin appealed to the Senate, which had a 60 vote Democratic majority. The Senate refused to seat Wyman while considering the matter. After a long and contentious debate in the Senate, with Republicans filibustering attempts by the Democratic majority to seat Durkin instead, a special election was held, with Durkin winning handily and becoming Senator.
- From 1869 to 1900, the House of Representatives refused to seat over 30 Southern Democratic candidates declared the winner by their states because the House Elections Committee concluded that fraud, violence, or intimidation had been used against black voters, or, in some cases, that the election statutes of the states themselves were unconstitutional. (Giles v. Harris(1903) ended the latter practice.) In some cases a new election was ordered, while in others the defeated Republican or Populist candidate was seated instead.
- Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.(D–New York), a sitting representative, was excluded by the House of Representatives in 1967 because of allegations of corruption. He successfully sued to retain his seat in a landmark Supreme Court decision.
There are other examples.
Woodall
Bourdeaux
What if House Democrats decide to take as hard a line as Sen. Mitch McConnell did in blocking one Supreme Court nominee (Merrick Garland), and ramming through another Supreme Court jurist? Could the Democrats look at several close elections (amid cries of “fraud”), and decide to seat the person who came in second?
You say it probably won’t happen this year? Consider the close race between Rob Woodall and Carolyn Bourdeaux for the 7th Congressional District seat, where Woodall was declared the winner by 419 votes, and now Bourdeaux wants a recount.
Apparently the Congressional rules allow such. We doubt it will happen. But during these turbulent political times? Don’t count it out.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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