On December 14th America’s electoral colleges will vote for a president; On January 6, the U.S. Congress counts the electoral College votes. If members of both chambers challenge the election result, each will discuss whether to ratify it. Already, several members of the House of Representatives have said they will challenge the results, while two senators have said they are open to doing so.
Leading the congressional challenge is Rep. Mo Brooks (R., Ala.) Along with a group of Allies in the House of Representatives, he is looking to challenge the results in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin. They point to varying degrees of fraud or illegal voting in these states.
“Under the Constitution, we have a higher role [in determining election results] than any Supreme Court, than any federal court judge, than any state court judge.” “We are what we say,” Brooks told The New York Times. This is the final verdict.
Under the rules of the Constitution and the 1887 Election counting Act, their challenge must be filed in writing and accompanied by the signature of at least one senator.
Two Republican senators, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rand Paul of Kentucky, have said they are open to challenge action.
Once members of both houses of Congress object, senators and representatives return to their respective chambers for two hours of debate before voting on whether to annul a state’s vote. Both the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and the Republican-controlled Senate must agree to cancel a state’s election results. But nothing like this has happened since the 19th century.
Brooks is not the first lawmaker to try to challenge the Electoral College. House Democrats tried this in 2001, 2005 and even 2017, but it was mostly a protest after their party’s nominee had accepted defeat.
The difference this time is that President Trump never conceded the election. And a significant number of Republican lawmakers did not recognize Mr. Biden’s victory. And vice President Mike Pence, as president of the Senate, has a big role to play on January 6th. He has the constitutionally mandated task of opening and counting the electoral College votes sent in from all 50 states and announcing the results.
Pence said he supports Trump’s challenge. At a rally in Georgia on Thursday, Mr Pence said: “We will continue to fight until every legitimate vote is counted.”
“I know a lot of people are skeptical about this election. I know I am.” Pence said.
Ms. Brooks has been trying to rally support. He met last week with six senators, including Utah’s Mike Lee, and with members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
“My first goal is to fix a deeply flawed American electoral system that too easily allows voter fraud and election theft.” “The potential additional benefit of achieving this goal is that Trump will officially win the Electoral College, which I believe if you count only the legitimate votes of eligible U.S. citizens and exclude all illegal votes, he has in fact won,” Brooks said.
It remains unclear how broad a coalition Mrs Brooks can build. More than 60 percent of House Republicans, including two Republican leaders, signed a legal opinion in support of Texas’s unsuccessful Supreme Court case to overturn the election result.
Some Republicans, including Representatives Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Matt Gaetz of Florida, also said they could support the challenge.
“All eyes are on January 6.” Speaking on Fox News on Friday night after the Supreme Court dismissed the Texas lawsuit, Gates said, “As we go through the process of certifying electors, I suspect there will be some debate and discussion in Congress, and we still think there is evidence to consider.”
Kentucky Republican Senator Paul said he would “wait to see the outcome of all the legal cases” before deciding what to do.
Senator Johnson plans to hold a hearing this week to “examine irregularities in the 2020 election.” Participants will include former independent lawyer Ken Starr, a conservative favorite, and at least two lawyers who supported Trump’s challenge. Mr Johnson told reporters last week that whether he would continue to challenge the outcome on January 6 would “depend on the outcome of our investigation”.
Recent Comments