Several senators, led by Senator Ted Cruz, say they will reject the results of the Electoral College, unless a commission is appointed to conduct a 10-day audit of the results. Congress is ready to tell the Electoral College votes on January 6.
“We intend to vote on January 6 to reject voters from disputed states as not ‘regularly given’ and ‘legally certified’ (the legal requirement), unless and until the 10-day emergency audit is completed,” the group said. in a statement on Saturday.
Cruz Group works separately from Republican Senator Josh Hawley in its effort to challenge the results of the Electoral College when Congress meets on Wednesday. Dozens of House Republicans who are also expected to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, although the Electoral College affirmed its 306 electoral votes in December.
These last-minute challenges will not change the outcome of the election and Biden is scheduled to open on January 20. The list of Republican lawmakers contesting the results includes some of the party’s biggest rising stars, and these efforts are an attempt to win favors from President Trump and his base.
Cruz is working with Senators Ron Johnson, James Lankford, Steve Daines, John Kennedy, Marsha Blackburn and Mike Braun, and elected senators Cynthia Lummis, Roger Marshall, Bill Hagerty and Tommy Tuberville. Only one of these senators, Johnson, from Wisconsin, represents a state conquered by Biden.
In their testimony, the senators say they are trying to restore faith in the democratic process, due to allegations of electoral fraud. Trump’s legal team has repeatedly been unable to provide evidence of electoral fraud in several lawsuits that contested election results.
The statement cites the 1876 election, when Congress appointed an Electoral Commission in early 1877 to consider and resolve electoral disputes.
“Congress must immediately appoint an Electoral Commission, with full investigative and fact-finding authority, to conduct a 10-day emergency audit of electoral results in the disputed states. Once completed, individual states would evaluate the Commission’s findings and they could call a legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if necessary, “the statement said.
O joint session of Congress it is required by law to ratify presidential results, but it also allows “members to oppose the returns of any individual state as they are announced,” according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
Hawley has so far been the only Republican senator to commit to contesting electoral votes in a last effort to hand Trump a second term after previous efforts to contest election results have failed, including losses from several campaign lawsuits.
“At the very least, Congress should investigate allegations of electoral fraud and take steps to ensure the integrity of our elections. But Congress has so far not acted,” Hawley said last week.
However, some Republicans find Hawley’s effort damaging to democratic institutions and accuse him of making a cynical ploy to garner support from Trump voters before a possible presidential candidacy in 2024.
In a bite tweet last week, Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger said that Hawley’s “internal monologue” in releasing his statement was: “I want to be president, so I decided to try to get a tweet from POTUS saying that I look great, although I know this is not nowhere, but hey … I’ll blame someone else when that fails. “
Republican Senator Ben Sasse posted a lengthy Facebook post on Wednesday saying that anyone who wanted to contest the election results was “playing with fire”.
“Let’s make it clear what’s going on here: we have a lot of ambitious politicians who think there’s a quick way to get in touch with the president’s populist base without doing any real damage in the long run. But they are wrong – and that problem it’s bigger than anyone’s personal ambitions. Adults don’t point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government, “said Sasse.
Meanwhile, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell called election voting “the most important vote” in a liaison with senators this week, according to Senator Mitt Romney, who was on the call. Romney told reporters on Friday that he interpreted McConnell’s comments as meaning that the vote is a “referendum on our democracy”.
“Look, I lost in 2012, I know what losing is,” said Romney, who ran for president in 2012. “And there were people who said there were irregularities. I have people today who say ‘hey, you know what you really won’ – but I didn’t win, I lost fairly. Of course, there have always been irregularities, but spreading this kind of rumor about our electoral system does not work is dangerous for democracy here and abroad ”.
In their statement, the senators acknowledged that “they fully expect the majority, if not all Democrats, and perhaps more than a few Republicans, to vote otherwise” and accept the election results.
“A fair and reliable audit – conducted quickly and completed well before January 20 – would dramatically improve Americans’ faith in our electoral process and significantly increase the legitimacy of whoever becomes our next president. We owe it to the people,” he said. the statement. “We are not acting to impede the democratic process, but to protect it. And each of us must act together to ensure that the election is conducted legally in accordance with the Constitution and do everything we can to restore faith in our democracy. “