Good Monday morning, CivMixers. It’s another big day in presidential politics.
Today, slates of electors will meet in all 50 states to formally cast their ballots for president and vice president – the next step in the process of finalizing the victories of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris over Donald Trump and Mike Pence, respectively.
Those ballots will be sent to Washington, D.C., where they will be counted by Congress on Jan. 6. Once that occurs, and assuming all goes the way it’s supposed to, Biden will be inaugurated the 46th president on Jan. 20 at noon.
Technically speaking, there’s nothing in the Constitution or federal law that requires the electors, who were picked months ago by the political parties in each state, to vote for the candidates who won in their state. Anyone who decides to go the other way is called a “faithless elector,” and there are penalties in state law – like fines – for them.
There were just 10 faithless electors after the 2016 election. Of course, this year is different than anything we’ve ever seen, and Trump and his allies continue to be hell bent on trying to overturn the results of the November election.
Biden’s margin of victory in the Electoral College is expected to be 306 votes to Trump’s 232, if there are no surprises.
Since the outgoing president has been rejected by the courts in his quest at pretty much every turn. A small group of Trump’s most loyal backers in Congress is plotting a last-chance challenge on the floor of the House on Jan. 3 to try to reverse Biden’s victory.
Meanwhile, Biden today plans to deliver a speech on the resilience of U.S. democracy following the electors’ votes in the various states today, again seeking to reaffirm the legitimacy of his win and unite the nation despite Trump’s ongoing – and false – claims of widespread voter fraud.
In a bit of a twist, the New York electors will be gathering at the state Capitol today in person, as that is required by the state Constitution, regardless of the fact that the pandemic continues to rage on. They will be sequestered in their own special room and have to take a COVID test before they are able to cast their ballots.
This is usually largely ceremonial and a big political who’s who, since the party tends to select prominent people to serve as electors. Both former President Bill Clinton and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee/ex-Sen. Hillary Clinton are New York electors for Biden, for example.
The governor has said that there’s nothing he can do about the in-person rule, and voiced concern that if New York were to allow remote votes from outside the Capitol building, it could open the state to a legal challenge from Trump and his supporters.
Something else significant is happening today – the only total solar eclipse of 2020. This relatively rare event occurs when the moon sweeps across the daytime sky and fully covers the sun’s disk as viewed from Earth, briefly blocking out the entire body of the sun except its outermost layer (the corona).
Unfortunately, this phenomenon will not be visible for most of the planet, but you can follow it online. Here, too.
Today is known in some circles as “Green Monday” – a very busy online shopping day that usually occurs the second Monday in December when consumers realize that there are only ten shipping days until Christmas.
With the increased volume of online purchasing this year as a result of the pandemic – not to mention the ASAP requirements of getting the COVID vaccine out to every state (more on that later) – the delivery system has been overwhelmed.
Our spate of unseasonably warm weather has come to and end. Expect temperatures in the low-to-mid 30s today, with snow showers in the morning. And apparently, there’s a lot more where that came from, depending on where you live on the Northeastern seaboard.
It could be a white Christmas.
In the headlines…
The mass distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine is underway. This is good news, but a lot can go wrong, and most Americans won’t likely have the opportunity to get vaccinated until the spring.
The United States is trying to turn the tide of battle against a virus whose out-of-control spread has killed nearly 300,000 people, ravaged the economy and upended millions of lives.
Winning over the general public to actually take the vaccine will be crucial to stopping the spread of the virus. A vaccine’s effectiveness depends not only on how well it works in an individual but also on how widely it is adopted.
A large-scale public education campaign, delayed by false starts and investigations, will get off the ground just as the coronavirus vaccine becomes available to high-risk Americans.
State leaders say they are short billions of dollars in funding needed to successfully provide Covid-19 vaccinations to all Americans who want to be inoculated by health officials’ June goal.
A Trump administration spokesman said top officials in the three branches of government would be among the first to receive a coronavirus vaccine, but later in the evening, the president himself said most White House staff members will have to wait.
The White House said that senior U.S. government officials will receive the coronavirus vaccine to ensure essential government functionality and security.
Trump, who tested positive for the coronavirus in October and recovered after being hospitalized, also implied that he would get the vaccine himself at some point in the future, but said he had no immediate plans to do so.
FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn is pushing back against claims by the Trump administration that his agency slowed down the COVID-19 vaccine approval.
The first shipment of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine will reach New York today, and health-care workers could be getting their shots within hours of arrival.
Health care workers in New Jersey will begin to receive the COVID-19 vaccine tomorrow, Gov. Phil Murphy announced.
At least 356,000 more people in the United States have died than usual since the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the country in the spring. But not all of these deaths have been directly linked to Covid-19.
Germany will go into a “hard” national lockdown, starting next week and continuing through the Christmas period, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, after agreeing to stricter measures with state governments to stem a wave of coronavirus cases.
Following in the path of the Washington Football Team, the Cleveland Indians have decided to remove the team’s name that many consider racist and insensitive.
The Wall Street Journal has come under a torrent of denunciation for publishing a “sexist” opinion article that calls Jill Biden, the first lady-in-waiting, “kiddo”, and questions her right to use “Dr” in front of her name.
Dr. Biden responded on Twitter: “Together, we will build a world where the accomplishments of our daughters will be celebrated, rather than diminished.”
The Trump administration acknowledged that Russian hackers broke into a range of key government networks, including in the Treasury and Commerce Departments, and had free access to their email systems.
Lawmakers considering a fresh round of financial aid for small businesses are focusing on firms with fewer employees that could show they have been hurt by the pandemic-triggered downturn, addressing criticisms that dogged the PPP program.
Members of Congress are expected to introduce a COVID relief spending bill early this week, according to a published report. A bipartisan group is planning to introduce the $908 billion legislation in two parts.
U.S. Senate Democrats are in the final stretch of negotiating a COVID-19 relief package that will include roughly $4 billion for the MTA, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
A former economic-development aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and current candidate for Manhattan borough president accused the governor of sexually harassing her while she worked for the state.
Lindsey Boylan, 36, said in posts on Twitter that Cuomo “harassed me for years. Many saw it, and watched. I could never anticipate what to expect: would I be grilled on my work (which was very good) or harassed about my looks. Or would it be both in the same conversation?”
A Cuomo spokesperson said: “There is simply no truth to these claims.” Boylan is refusing to speak to reporters. She providing no proof to back up her claims and didn’t file any formal complaints against the governor while she was a state employee.
Personnel memos written in 2018, obtained by The Associated Press, indicate that Boylan resigned from Cuomo’s administration after she was confronted about complaints about her own office behavior.
Several women complained to Empire State Development’s human resources department that “Ms. Boyland had behaved in a way towards them that was harassing, belittling, and had yelled and been generally unprofessional.”
According to an internal memo from September of that year, three black employees went to state human resources officials accusing Boylan, who is white, of being a “bully” who “treats them like children.”
Boylan had previously tweeted that working for Cuomo marked the “most toxic team environment” she’d ever been a part of.
Boylan’s accusations come as Cuomo is reportedly under consideration by Biden to serve as U.S. attorney general.
…The other three contenders for the job include outgoing Alabama Sen. Doug Jones, federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.
Interim NYC Transit President Sarah Feinberg and former city Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg are both being vetted by the incoming Biden administration for transportation secretary, sources said.
Indoor dining ends in New York City today as a result of rising COVID-19 infection rates, and many restaurants say they won’t survive.
Cuomo released new metrics for the microcluster zones on Friday as regions across the state see coronavirus cases climb.
Incoming Democratic state senators representing upstate areas say their victories will bring a new set of issues to the table when state lawmakers reconvene in January.
Buffalo Democratic Assemblyman Robin Schimminger will not report to Albany either in person or virtually when the Legislature convenes early next month, for the first time since 1977. At the age of 73, he is retiring due to family considerations.
Rep. Max Rose, the brash Staten Island Democrat who recently lost his re-election race, appears all but certain to run for mayor of New York City.
Andrew Yang, the former tech executive who gained a national following as a Democratic presidential candidate, has been privately telling New York City leaders that he intends to run for mayor next year.
So far, there are more than 30 candidates for NYC mayor in 2021.
New York Police Department officers fatally shot a man firing a gun on the steps of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in Manhattan after a holiday event yesterday afternoon, police officials said.
NYPD detectives will target gang leaders in a fresh campaign against gun violence as New York City grapples with a rise in shootings that is more intense than any seen in the previous 20 years, police officials said.
A Brooklyn principal is under investigation for allegedly instructing roughly 150 teens and adults to eat lunch together in the cafeteria rather than their individual classrooms, flouting school COVID safety guidance.
Deutsche Bank AG is considering moving some of its 4,600 Manhattan staff to other hub cities across the U.S. but there are no concrete plans as yet.
Nearly 50 elected judges denied the chance to remain on the bench are suing the New York State court system for age discrimination — and claim the layoffs come when their judgeship is needed more than ever.
A number of lawsuits filed under the Child Victims Act detail abuse victims say they experienced in foster care.
The recount in the still too-close-to-call NY-22 race will resume today, with federal observers looking on.
UFO sightings across the city are up 31 percent from last year — 46, compared with 35 — and an eye-popping 283 percent from 2018’s measly dozen, according to the National UFO Reporting Center.
Blue Ivy Carter, the 8-year-daughter of Beyonce and Jay-Z, has received a Grammy nomination for appearing in the video for Beyonce’s “Brown Skin Girl.” She’s one of the youngest Grammy nominees ever.
RIP John le Carré, a former spy who became an internationally renowned author of bestselling espionage tales, has died of pneumonia at the age of 89.
