The time has come for all of us to be aware that the seeds to our destruction as a democratic republic lie in the explicit words of the Constitution, and that there is a real possibility that those words will be used to abolish any ability of the American people to choose their own president.

I am not referring to the clearly criminal insurrection of January 6, 2021, staged by right wing zealots and their leaders. That violent attempt to subvert our democracy had no basis in fact or law.

What I am suggesting is none of that, but rather a scheme that, if successful, would be cloaked in the protective safety of the Constitution itself.

This poison pill lies at the very heart of our founding document in the unambiguous words of the second paragraph of Section 1 of Article II of the Constitution, the Section that decrees how our presidents are selected. The third paragraph of that Section was amended in 1804 by the adoption of the 12th Amendment which was intended to remedy the debacle of the 1800 contest between Jefferson and Burr. But the words of that second paragraph remained unchanged. Those fateful words are:

“Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress” and those electors shall “choose the president….”

It is immediately apparent that there is no limitation to the power of each state legislature to “appoint (its electors), in such manner” as it may direct, and those electors shall choose the president.

The fact that all the states have since the middle of the 19th century chosen to select their electors via the popular vote of their citizens is no more nor less than historical happenstance. There is absolutely no constitutional requirement for a popular vote, and each state, probably prior to any election, is totally free to change its method of selecting electors. They are free to entirely abolish the popular vote for their electors; they may, if they choose, select the electors themselves.

There is no safe harbor for any popular vote for our president. As a matter of historical fact, any such popular voting for president was explicitly rejected by the framers of our Constitution. That was also the case for the election of senators who, until 1913 when the 17th Amendment decreed that they shall be elected by popular vote, were also selected by their state legislatures. In the original Constitution, only the members of the House of Representatives were elected by the people.

Thus it is that these explicit words of Article II of our Constitution create the soft underbelly of our ability to elect our own president. Those words provide a roadmap to the end of our democracy.

In order to win the presidency in this manner, there is a road that anti-democracy zealots could travel. It begins with achieving control of legislatures of enough “blue” states likely to vote for the Democratic nominee. These controlled legislatures have sufficient electoral votes that, when added to the electoral votes from traditional “red” states, would give them a 270 electoral vote majority. They could then abolish the popular vote in those “blue” states and provide that their electors shall be chosen by their respective legislatures. Thus, by abolishing the popular vote in those states, they would harvest enough additional electoral votes to elect a president.

The chances of success of such a scheme are not as far fetched as might initially appear, because Republican control of state governments has long exceeded their success in the popular votes for presidential electors. Just look at Biden’s victory in 2020. Of his 306 electoral votes, 73 of them came from states which at the same time elected Republican controlled legislatures: Arizona (11 electors), Georgia (16), Michigan (16), Pennsylvania (20), and Wisconsin (10). If legislatures in enough of those states abolished the popular selection of electors to bring Biden’s total below 270, Trump would be president.

In writing this essay, I am confident that I am revealing nothing to the insurrectionists. Although I am not privy to their scheming, I have no doubt that they know all of this as well as, if not better than, the rest of us. But, in the 2020 election, I believe they had neither the time nor the wit effectively to deploy their most dangerous weapon. In 2024, we cannot count on their continuing failure to deploy what is clearly available to them. Thus, I submit this essay because the old truism remains true: forewarned is forearmed.

So what can be done to protect our ability to elect our presidents?

It all begins with awareness of the danger, which, of course, is the purpose of this essay. There follows a number of steps beginning with mobilization of public opinion. The people must express themselves — and doing so is a powerful tool. One only has to recall the impact pro-choice demonstrators had when they voted en masse in Kansas, one of the reddest of red states.

We must begin paying close attention to the candidates for our state legislatures. Historically, those contests have flown far under the radar. However, in the Constitution they are central to the election of presidents. Accordingly, the insurrectionists will be deeply involved in choosing and influencing state legislature candidates. The rest of us must do the same.

This means not only monetary support, but full and inventive use of public forums and debates with the clear objective of forcing all legislature candidates to commit to the proposition that presidential electors will continue to be elected by the people.

Most of all, means must be found to bring into the light of day the secret schemes of those who would steal our elections. There is no doubt but that, if this particular conspiracy is ever exposed, the wrath of Americans will be uncontainable.

Democrats, Republicans, and Independents will be outraged, but it is the Republicans who will bear the greatest responsibility. It is my fervent hope that they will follow this plea from the greatest Republican, spoken at Gettysburg:

“…that we here highly resolve … that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

Sherwin Markman graduated from Yale Law School and lived in Rock Hall, Md., for many years. He served as an assistant to President Lyndon Johnson, after which he was a trial lawyer in Washington, D.C. He has published several books, including one dealing with the Electoral College. He has also taught and lectured about the American political system.