Yesterday here, I was talking about a silly plan some Republicans are toying with of running a third-party candidate — someone they consider, unlike Mr. Trump, a true conservative. The idea there is not to win the election the normal way but to split the vote such that no one reaches 270 and the decision gets thrown into the Republican-controlled House. I said — and I was wrong to say this — "It could be the third-party conservative or even someone whose name didn't appear on any ballot."
Why that was wrong: Because the Constitution, that document people swear by when it permits them to do what they wanna, says that the House would pick from "the persons having the highest numbers [of electoral votes] not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President." That would mean they'd pick that third-party guy since they sure wouldn't pick Hillary and the whole idea of doing this is not to pick Donald. It's still a terrible idea that wouldn't work and that would damage our democracy if it did.
Thanks to the many folks who wrote in to remind me of this.