The 1876 presidential election contest between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden was only resolved after months of wrangling and wheeling and dealing, which left Hayes as the winner by one electoral vote--when Tilden had only been short by one to begin with.
Tilden had more of the popular vote, and almost enough electoral votes, but Hayes had much better support from his party in Congress and in other determinative bodies at the state level.
Through the Compromise of 1877, the Democrats allowed Hayes the presidency, but achieved an end to Reconstruction, which left the way open for states to pass Jim Crow laws.
The Electoral Count Act of 1887 established more firmly some of the procedures involving electoral votes. It's very difficult to read, and may very well be unconstitutional.
Now Congress has multiple efforts going that are looking at amending the Electoral Count Act.
The original Electoral Count Act is two and a half pages long, closely spaced, while the much more spaced-out Electoral Count Modernization Act draft is 42 pages.
There's some interesting wording on pages 7 and 8, where certain catastrophic events that are usually called "acts of God" (while also being within the powers of Satan according to the book of Job), are subject to at least a $10,000 fine and from one to ten years in prison if done to disrupt the counting of electoral votes.
Did Amy Klobuchar write that part?
On page 14, there's a very short three-day limit for filing federal lawsuits.
**** Congress and those who write the legislation for them; I have to go make dinner now.
A boomer apologizes, albeit without much clarity.
"It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs," Jesus said; Matthew 15:26.
I recently understood that I am spending my life in rebuilding spiritual and practical foundations that had been foolishly undermined by previous generations.
Several months ago I was reading a nonfiction book by Christian author Paul Tournier, and made it about three-quarters of the way through before being drawn away to other things.
When I picked it up this last week and finished reading it, I found references to about a dozen Bible passages that had come up in my daily Bible readings in the interim, mostly obscure Old Testament personages with a variety of afflictions; Tournier was a Swiss doctor famous for connecting his Christianity with his medical practice.
I also read a Christian fiction book this last week: Deadline, by Randy Alcorn. One day, what I read in the book mirrored my morning Bible reading on that same day.
"A work of creation was three-fold, an earthly trinity to match the heavenly; the Creative Idea, timeless and passionate, which is the image of the Father; the Creative Energy, begotten of the idea and working in time, which is the image of the Word; the Creative Power, the meaning of the work and its response in the individual soul, which is the image of the indwelling Spirit."
-- P. D. James, summarizing Dorothy L. Sayers' description
