Sheryl Nuxoll, a Republican state senator from Idaho, believes there’s still a way to put Mitt Romney in the White House come January, despite the fact he lost both the popular vote and the Electoral College tally.

Nuxoll posted an article via her Twitter account insisting that Romney’s election is “still not too late.” Her idea has roots in the Tea Party, whose enthusiasts have circulated a proposal from Judson Phillips, a former assistant district attorney in Tennessee and founder of Tea Party Nation.

Phillips claims that if 17 of the 24 states that Romney won refuse to participate in the Electoral College when it convenes in December, the college would have no quorum. Without a quorum, the decision of choosing a winner would move to the US House of Representatives, which Republicans control, according to Phillips.

But the idea is based on a misinterpretation of the 12th Amendment, says constitutional scholar David Adler, director of the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University.

The amendment states that when no candidate receives a majority in the Electoral College, the decision moves to the House, where each state would have one vote and a quorum of two-thirds of the states would be required.

“The two-thirds reference in the 12th Amendment is a reference not to the Electoral College but rather to the establishment of a quorum in the House of Representatives,” Adler told the Spokane Spokesman-Review.

No quorum is required for the Electoral College, he added, saying the plan touted by Nuxoll, Phillips and other Tea Party members is “really a strange and bizarre fantasy.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Eye on Boise: Lawmaker Shares Far-Fetched Idea to Elect Romney (by Betsy Z. Russell, Spokane Spokesman-Review)

Sheryl Nuxoll Twitter Link Message

A Constitutional Plan for Installing Romney as President? Oh, Wait. Nevermind. (by Emily Phelps, Constitutional Accountability Center)

Americans Overwhelmingly Want to End Electoral College (by David Wallechinsky and Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)