Girl Power (27 page)

involved with them. We trust you. Do you trust us?"

She used to be a snit, and they'd been super nice to her. A slight pain surged

through her sinuses as tears welled in her eyes. "Oh yes!"

"Then tell me who told you. It won't leave this office."

"It was Crowe."

"The RNC Chairman?"

"Ah-huh. Except he quit. On election night."

"Well that's a pretty good source. He doesn't know what they're up to?

Melissa shook her head. "Just that they're in too good a mood, considering

how much they hate to lose."

Sally cupped her chin. "I wonder what they're up to. What do you think,

Lindy?"

"We need a lawyer."

"What about Jennifer?" asked Melissa.

Lindy frowned. "It's not something the average lawyer would know off the

top of their head. I doubt she knows. We're probably going to need a

constitutional lawyer."

"Well, Jen is our lawyer. We can always start with her. Maybe she'll know,

and if she doesn't she might know a constitutional lawyer." Sally dialed her number.

"Hello."

"Jen, it's Sally. I have Lindy and Melissa with me. We just heard something disturbing which needs to be checked out."

"What's that?"

"We have reason to believe the Republicans don't believe we won the

election, and in fact, their candidate will prevail. Do you know about anything in the constitution or any enacted amendments or laws, which would alter the

results of the election?"

"No. Would you like me to look into it?"

"If you would. And hurry."

"I will."

~ * * ~

An hour later, Sally had Lindy, Melissa and Lee come to her office. "All

right Jen, we're all here. I'm going to put you on speakerphone. Tell them what

you told me."

"Hello, everybody."

After everyone said hi, Jennifer said, "Being only vaguely cognizant of

Constitutional law and unable to think of any reasons why the election results

could be contested, I consulted with a Georgetown professor whom I'm friendly

with." "And what did you find out?" Lee urged politely.

"That the laws governing the electoral college as they were set up by the

Twelfth Amendment over two hundred years ago are ambiguous and wildly out

of date. Although the amendment mentions third party candidates with regard

to the vice president and a couple other places, the Electoral College was not set up for more than two candidates."

"I don't understand."

"I know. I don't either. It doesn't make sense, but the law says the first

candidate to reach half of the electoral votes, plus one, wins. Not the candidate with the highest total. In this case, the candidate who reaches two-seventy,

period. With three viable candidates, it's possible to get over half the electors, Nixon did in 1968, but it's not likely. Since none of the candidates has the

necessary votes, the top three candidates, including Taylor, would be voted on in the House, not by each congressman, but by state, which is as stupid a law as I've ever heard."

Lindy scrunched her nose. "That is stupid."

"I know, and there's more. If no candidate gets the required votes, the

House is obligated to vote immediately, which leads some factions to say the old House votes, while others say the new House votes."

"Which means if the old House votes, Richardson wins," mused Sally.

"Humph!" grunted Lee. "And if the new House votes, Richardson can still win. No wonder the Republicans are giddy. We're screwed, because of an archaic

law." Lindy cocked her head and furrowed her brow. "Unless the states that Taylor won switch to Sally."

"Yes!" Lee stood up and started pacing. "I'm sure D.C. can't vote. Even so we would have twenty-six states to Richardson's twenty-four."

"Except one of them is Arizona," Sally noted, "a deeply red state that voted for a favorite son. I doubt they would vote for me."

"The old congress no, but Arizona elected two of our congresswomen and

new congress has enough Pinks with the Democrats for a majority."

Sally threw up her hands. "This is so complicated it's giving me a headache.

Any favorable resolution to this mess is going to require the help of the

Democrats so I'm going to call Debra Scholtz Waters. I'll keep you informed."

When Sally was alone, she called the DNC Chairwoman, and after a long

chat, Sally agreed to meet with her people at the DNC headquarters in ten days.

~ * * ~

Democratic National Committee – November 26

At the prescribed time, Sally, Lindy, Lee, and Jennifer met with Debra, her

deputy, Hal Gunderson, two DNC attorneys, Tom Harmon, Calvin Tuck, and

Clovis Taylor in the DNC conference room.

After introductions, Debra said, "We've had a dozen attorneys and a

professor of Constitutional law study this problem. The consensus is the Twelfth Amendment makes as much sense as the second or third Amendment, maybe

less." Lindy leaned forward. "Excuse me. Isn't the second amendment about gun rights?"

"Calvin, would you like to answer that."

"Sure. Until recently, no less than four Supreme Court decisions affirmed

that gun rights were not an individual right, but a well regulated militia's right.

The amendment was poorly written, but any objective interpretation of the

wording of the law, or what the authors intention were, ties gun ownership to

militias. Individual gun ownership is protected more by the NFA than by actual

law." Lindy pursed her lips. "Hmm. Isn't that interesting."

"Thank you, Calvin. Now, to the problem at hand. I'm sorry to say, there is no foolproof, slam-dunk solution. Our alternatives boil down to selecting the

best of two lousy options, both of which the Republicans would likely contest in court." Debra looked straight at Sally and joked, "Don't worry Sally; we'll get you into the oval office in time to run for reelection."

Sally thought it was funny, but only a couple participants chuckled. "May I ask what those lousy options are?"

"Sure, one option is doing nothing and let it go to the inevitable House vote.

If we got Taylor's states to vote for you, you would win by two states and we

would go to court. However, if Arizona refused to vote for you and switched to

Richardson, the vote would be tied at twenty-five all."

Sally raised a forefinger. "If Arizona did that, wouldn't it negate the

justification to go to court?"

"Tom, you want to take that question."

"Gladly. Ms. Cummings—"

"Sally, please."

"Alright, Sally. You are right. But they wouldn't need to because they would be tied. At that point, the House would vote again and if tied, they would vote

again. That's one of the things that make this such a poor law. There is no

resolution for the tie of the tie."

Calvin spoke up. "Well there sort of is, with the Vice President."

There were a few groans.

Debra said, "Yes, tell us about the Vice President."

Calvin shrugged. "Yes Ma'am. While the House votes between you and

Republican opponent, the Senate does the same thing with Ms. Opry and the

other Vice Presidential candidates. Since the combined Pinks and Democrats

have control of the senate, Ms. Opry's election should be assured.

"That's good because if your election is not resolved by inauguration day,

the Vice President serves as the acting President."

Sally sipped her water, then said, "So Winfred gets to take my place while

I'm in limbo in an insane never-ending vote. How could the founding fathers let

things get so screwed up?"

Calvin took Sally's rhetorical question literally and responded. "Is the

Constitution outdated? Definitely, but remember it was written over two

centuries ago. For a pastoral country, one-tenth the size it is now, with one

twentieth of today's population, they did a good job."

"I know they did. Maybe if we get a chance we should try to update the

constitution?"

Debra said, "Let's not get ahead of ourselves."

Sally smiled at Debra. "You're right. You said there was another option?"

"Yes, I like this one, but it would definitely land you in the Supreme Court.

Instead of the having the states change their votes in the tie vote, have the

electors change their electoral vote. For instance, if we added the electors for New Jersey, Oregon, and Virginia to your vote that gives you exactly two

hundred and seventy votes."

"Can they do that?"

"We don't know."

Chapter Twenty-four – Reconciliation

The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it.

— Rosanne Barr

Chamber room of the House of Representatives – Jan 7th

After swearing in the 435 congressional representatives, Speaker Balmer

approached the lectern. "The first order of business of this session is to certify the electoral votes for President. Would the Tally Clerk read off and record the

votes?"

"Yes sir:

Alabama: Nine votes for Richardson.

Alaska: Three votes for Richardson

Arkansas: Six votes for Richardson.

Arizona: Eleven votes for Taylor.

California: Fifty-five votes for Cummings.

Colorado: Nine votes for Cummings.

Connecticut: Seven votes for Cummings.

Delaware: Three votes for Cummings.

District of Columbia: Three votes for Cummings."

Speaker Balmer frowned. "Excuse me, Tally Clerk. May I see your list?"

The Tally Clerk handed the list to the Speaker, who scrutinized it for a

minute. "We are going to take a short recess. Would the various party leaders join me in my conference room?"

Six party leaders—two from each party—followed Balmer to his office,

where each party leader swore they had no knowledge of the apparent switch of

fifty-nine representatives. After getting nowhere with the Democrats and brand

new SAFE members, Balmer left Majority Leader Eric Kantdo arguing with the

more liberal leaders while he went to his office to make a phone call to the new Republican National Committee Chairman, Ian Rich.

"Ian, this is John Balmer."

"Hi, John. Big day, huh?"

"Not exactly. Things aren't working out the way our lawyers said they

would. That's why I called."

"What's the matter?"

"Fifty-nine of the electors, who were supposed to vote for Taylor, switched to Cummings. Ian, she has two hundred-ninety-five electoral votes."

"Shit! Let me make some calls. Don't certify the vote; in fact don't do

anything until I call you back."

~ * * ~

Debra Scholtz Waters', intercom rang. "Yes, Julie."

"You have a call from Hairy Rede on line one."

"Thank you."

She pushed the button for line one. "Debra,"

"Madame Chairwoman, this is Senator Rede. I thought you'd like to know.

We just certified the results of the Electoral College. That means on January 20th, Justice Johns will swear in Winfred Opry as Vice President of the United States."

"Everything went smoothly then?"

"Not quite. The Republican's tried to filibuster the conformation, but the

Pinks in concert with our members voted that down. Debra, you have no idea

how good it felt to override a filibuster."

"I'm sure, Thank you, Senator, for a job well done."

"You're welcome, and good luck with the rest of the operation."

Five minutes after hanging up from Senator Reed, her intercom rang again.

"Yes?"

"You have another call on line one from a Mr. Ian Rich."

Ian Rich? "Oh, yeah! He's the one who took Crowe Magnon's place at the

RNC after he left so unexpectedly. I'll take the call."

"Ms. Waters?"

"Yes, Julie."

"I should warn you. Mr. Rich seems a bit agitated."

Debra smiled. I wonder why. "Thanks for the warning."

"Good afternoon, Mr. Rich. We haven't met, but I know who you are. What

can I do for you?"

"I know who you are, too, and I know what you did."

"And what is that?"

"You or your associates bullied fifty-nine electors into switching their vote to Cummings."

"Mr. Rich, we are not the Republicans. We do not bully anyone. Nor do we

feed them misinformation or any of the numerous tricks your party is known

for." "No, how did you get them to switch their votes then?"

"We reasoned with them. After all, since Taylor notified the FEC he was

withdrawing from the race, a vote for him would be wasted."

"Taylor withdrew?"

"Yes, he did, on December tenth."

Debra smiled when she heard a groan on the end of the line. "May I say

something, Mr. Chairman?"

"Go ahead."

"In poker, when someone doesn't have the cards, they are foolish not to

throw them in. Mr. Rich, you don't have the cards. The House could contest

those votes, but you no longer have the votes to win. You could stall on

confirming Sally Cummings as the winner. However, in less than two weeks,

Winfred Opry will be inaugurated as Vice President and if Sally isn't confirmed, will be asked to fill the Presidential vacancy as acting President. Knowing your base, as much as they hate the idea of having a woman President, I'll bet they

would be seething mad at the idea of an African American woman President."

Ian, chuckled. "Ms. Waters, you are a smart cookie and a credit to your

party. I'm going to recommend we not fight Ms. Cummings ascension to the

Presidency. I'm also going to recommend that within the party, we do a little self-analysis and maybe the next time we confront each other, I'll have better cards.

"Mr. Rich—"