I wanted to take a moment to point that, even under the most hardball of constitutional hardball scenarios, without suggesting anything about the legality of those other steps in the process, Congress would stop the most “rogue” Electoral College scenarios by January 6 and ensure that Joe Biden was named the next president.

Suppose some number of Republican-controlled state legislatures attempted to choose slates of electors to support Donald Trump that conflicted with the electors confirmed by the state’s election official as being won by Mr. Biden.

Suppose two slates of electoral votes were sent to Congress.

Suppose enough states did this to plausibly give Mr. Trump at least 270 electoral votes and Mr. Biden at least 270 electoral votes, counting all duplicates.

Suppose Vice President Mike Pence, presiding over the meeting on January 6, opted to read aloud from the slate of Republican electors.

(Each of these supposes comes with major legal questions and caveats, as I mentioned in the opening, but let’s just stipulate to all of them now.)

Immediately, I anticipate, at least one Democrat from each house would object, in writing. They would request that the Democratic slate of electors be counted in lieu of the Republican slate.

Each house would go to their separate chambers to vote.

The House, narrowly controlled by Democrats as of January 6, would assuredly vote to grant that objection.

The Senate would have at least 48 Democrats. To get to 51 (with a small caveat about whether the Senate would have 99 or 100 members after the new session began January 3 and the Georgia Senate runoff was held on January 5), Democrats would need just three Republicans to join them.

Four Senators—Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, and Ben Sasse—have already congratulated President-Elect Joe Biden on his victory. At least three would likely join the 48 Democrats.

It is my sense, then, that even under this most egregious of rogue electoral vote scenarios that the Senate would join the House’s objection and insist on counting the Democratic slate instead of the Republican slate.

This, of course, might all change. And states might still try, regardless of the caveats above. But as I game out scenarios ahead of January 6, I do not see the most rogue Electoral College scenarios playing out in Mr. Trump’s favor.