Congressman Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, is making a last-ditch effort to change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election by suing Vice President Mike Pence to make him declare President Trump the winner by announcing the winner of the election college vote on 6 January.
As president of the Senate, the vice president is responsible for announcing the results after counting the electoral votes in a joint session of Congress. Gohmert and the Arizona Republican voter list say that the 12th Amendment gives Pence the right to choose which voter list to count in his state – and in other states – that had Republican voters cast votes, despite Democratic voters having their votes. certified in light of November general elections.
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“The 2020 presidential election was one that we hope to see in a banana republic, not in the United States of America,” Gohmert said in a statement on Monday, referring to allegations of fraud made by the Trump campaign. “In fact, the rampant fraud and unconstitutional actions that took place were so blatant that seven contested states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – sent lists of voters to Congress. That puts Vice President Mike Pence is in a position where some argue that he must choose between morality and the law. That is not the case. “
The lawsuit alleges that the Electoral Counting Law, which governs disputes over electoral votes in Congress, violates the 12th Amendment, which also describes the electoral voting process. The Electoral Counting Law details a process for handling objections to votes involving the House and the Senate. Gohmert’s complaint, filed Sunday in Texas federal court, says that constitutionally, it should be up to the House to do that.
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“The Electoral Counting Act limits or eliminates the vice president’s ability to determine which voters can be counted,” Arizona Republican Party President Kelli Ward, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “However, the simple law cannot contradict a Constitutional Amendment, which is why we contest the unconstitutionality of the statute and seek to demonstrate to the American people what the vice president’s constitutional powers are in this matter.”
The 12th Amendment and the Electoral Counting Law, however, address different circumstances that may arise during the counting process. Although the law, in 3 USC § 15, describes a process for handling objections to the announced votes, the only controversy that the 12th Amendment addresses is what happens if there is no majority winner after all votes have been counted. In that case, the Chamber would choose the president with each state having one vote. The amendment does not address what should happen if voters from both parties in one state cast votes.
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The Gohmert lawsuit interprets the 12th Amendment as giving the vice president the power to decide which list of voters to choose in a state, regardless of which slate votes have been certified by his state. As such, it states that the Electoral Counting Law illegally removes its power, giving Congress the power to resolve any disputes.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare the Electoral Counting Law unconstitutional and asks for an injunction preventing Pence from acting in accordance with his procedures.