I don't mean to pick on Symone Sanders Townsend.

But for the second time in as many weeks, the co-anchor of MSNBC's The Weekend has exposed a disturbing knowledge deficit. 

Last week, we caught Symone accusing Donald Trump, in his inaugural address, of "promising carnage." In fact, he promised to "stop" carnage, of the sort that keeps "mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities."

Today, in a segment devoted to trashing third-party candidates because of the likelihood that they would take votes from Biden, Sanders revealed her unfamiliarity with the way that Electoral College votes are awarded. Sanders:

"I think now more than any of our past recent elections, that third-party candidates are a true, true threat to Joe Biden, but also to 270, period. Our Constitution says, to be the President of the United States, you have to win 270 Electoral College votes. Not 269, not that majority rules all . . . Now, what if Joe Biden is denied 270? Or Donald Trump? Well, according to the 12th Amendment, the House gets to pick who the president is." 

What Sanders fails to grasp is that in every state but Nebraska and Maine, whoever wins a plurality of the popular vote wins all of the state's Electoral College votes. So even if a third-party candidate denied either Trump or Biden an outright majority in a given state [or in one of Nebraska or Maine's electoral districts], so long as either Trump or Biden got more votes than any other candidate, they'd get all of the state's electoral votes [or the electoral vote in the Nebraska or Maine district.]

Thus, the only way that Sanders' nightmare scenario could come to pass would be if one of the third-party candidates actually won a state, or one of Nebraska or Maine's districts. And not even the most fevered conspiracy-mongers have suggested that RFK, Jr., let alone Cornel West or Jill Stein, have any hope of pulling off such a miracle.

So Symone can sleep easy. But before next week's show, it would truly behoove her to study up on the topics at hand!

Note: Steele told Symone that there wouldn't be a problem "if the Democrats win the House in November." That's not necessarily true. Per the 12th Amendment, "Rather than voting individually, House members vote as state delegations. Each state delegation gets a single vote, and a candidate becomes president with the support of a majority (26) of state delegations."

So, even if in November Democrats won a majority of House seats, it's possible that Republicans would have the majority in more state delegations, and thus could have the power to elect the president. It's called a "contingent election."

Here's the transcript.

MSNBC
The Weekend
4/13/24
8:19 am EDT

JOE WALSH: [Third-party candidates are] so dangerous.

MICHAEL STEELE: And it's just, if enough of those people to go to that place, to their happy place, where they can, where they think that that vote is going to do what?

SYMONE SANDERS TOWNSEND: Let me say this. Because I think that there is a, I think now more than any of our past recent elections, that third-party candidates are a true, true threat to Joe Biden, but also to 270, period. 

Our Constitution says, to be the President of the United States, you have to win 270 Electoral College votes. Not 269, not that majority rules all. Now, the ballot access matters here, okay. So, RFK, Jr., Dr. West, Jill Stein. What does the ballot access program look like? RFK, Jr. is someone who is definitely --

STEELE: He's on one state right now. 

SANDERS TOWNSEND: He just gained ballot access in North Carolina. 

STEELE: So it's two states.

SANDERS TOWNSEND: Two. And that is a -- that's an issue. Because the margins matter here. Now, what if Joe Biden is denied 270? Or Donald Trump? 

STEELE: It goes to the House.

SANDERS TOWNSEND: Well, according to the 12th Amendment, the House gets to pick who the president is. I just watched that episode of Scandal the other day.

STEELE: Which version of the House? Is it the existing House or is the new House that is sworn in?

SANDERS TOWNSEND: It is the, tt is the new House.

STEELE: So if the Democrats win the House in November, you don't have a problem.

SANDERS TOWNSEND: Well, that means people have to vote down ballot.

STEELE: Well, there you go.