U.S. Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) announced on Jan. 2 that he would challenge the electoral vote, detailing on Jan. 3 that Congress should be accountable to voters and the Constitution, and that the purpose of the challenge is to urge Congress to urgently investigate allegations of election fraud.
On the 3rd, Cruz told Fox Business News that there are a large number of allegations of election fraud and irregularities, and that Congress has a responsibility to deal with election issues and a responsibility to protect the integrity of the democratic system.
In particular, he noted that the Trump team has called on courts and state legislatures to overturn election results in key states, and that many American people believe the results of the Nov. 3 election are not credible.
Cruz said the action to challenge the electoral votes is intended to “urge the creation of an emergency election commission to urgently review election results and evaluate allegations of election fraud …… We have 10 days before the presidential inauguration.”
“We should be accountable to the voters, we should be accountable to the Constitution to make sure that this election is legitimate.” He said.
Cruz and 11 other Republican senators announced Jan. 2 that they would join dozens of Republican House members in challenging the electoral votes on Jan. 6. The decision comes after Republican Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Texas) made it Dec. 30, becoming the first in the Senate.
If the House and Senate each have at least one member who jointly opposes a state’s electoral votes on Jan. 6, the joint session will be suspended for a two-hour debate on that state. Then the House and Senate vote, if the majority of both houses are in favor of the opposition, the state’s electoral votes are null and void. But some legal experts have previously speculated that Vice President Mike Pence, as Senate president, could reject the electoral votes.
Mo Brooks, the first congressman to propose a plan to challenge the electoral vote, told the Epoch Times in November that Congress has the constitutional authority to decide whether to accept or reject a state’s electoral votes.
About 50 federal House members have already decided to follow Brooks’ lead and file objections to the electoral votes on Jan. 6.
But the top Senate is opposed to the challenge plan, including Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Mitch McConnell), Senate Republican Whip John Thune (John Thune) and Senate Regulations Committee Chairman Roy Blunt (Roy Blunt), among others.
Democratic members of Congress, for their part, have criticized the challenge plan as tantamount to sedition or treason. But under the U.S. Constitution, objections to state electoral votes can be raised during a joint session of Congress, and Democratic lawmakers have launched similar challenges before, such as the 2004 election between Democratic candidate John Kerry and former President George W. Bush.
Republican Senators Mitt Romney (Mitt Romney), Lisa Murkowski (Lisa Murkowski) and Pat Toomey (Pat Toomey) said on Jan. 2 that they would vote against the challenge plan.
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