Donald Trump and Mike Pence
Photographer: Kevin Dietsch / UPI / Bloomberg
Photographer: Kevin Dietsch / UPI / Bloomberg
Vice President Mike Pence has no authority to unilaterally reverse Donald Trump’s electoral defeat at a joint congressional session next month, as a Republican congressman claims in a “last ditch” process, said a Colorado Democratic presidential voter to a judge.
Congressman Louie Gohmert argues that Pence can give Trump a second term simply by rejecting undecided Democratic voter lists and instead choosing competing Republican voters when the Senate and House meet on January 6 to open and count electoral voting certificates.
In a filing on Thursday, Colorado voter Alan Kennedy argues that competing voter plates cannot be chosen because they do not exist. States can choose only one ticket – and the decisive states in question have already done so – for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris, he said.
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“If an acting vice president could keep his job that way, the votes of millions of people and the votes of duly elected and certified voters would be meaningless, and our nation’s most cherished principle – ‘here, we, the people , we govern ‘- – would be eviscerated, ”said Kennedy.
The vice president has the constitutional function of presiding over the Senate, which traditionally includes overseeing the formal acceptance of the Electoral College vote.
“I can say that the discussion is something we expected and we are not concerned about,” Gohmert’s lawyer, Howard Kleinhendler, said by email, adding that a more detailed response will be sent on Friday.
The Dec. 27 lawsuit by Gohmert of Texas echoes Trump’s dismissed claim that Biden won the election only through rampant electoral fraud perpetrated by thousands of corrupt Democratic officials and election workers. Some members of Congress have signaled that they will object during the joint session, although not enough to block Biden’s victory.
“The fact that some members of Congress plan to oppose the electoral votes cast for President-elect Biden and Vice-President-elect Harris, for purely partisan reasons, does not add support to the false claims of the applicants for ‘competing voter lists’ ‘substantial electoral fraud’ in this election, ”said Kennedy.
(Updates with comment from the deputy lawyer.)