The List Of Republican Lawmakers Who Will Oppose Today’s Vote To Certify Electoral College Results Continues To Grow.
Photo: U.S. Senator David Perdue (Republican) from Georgia.
The Center Square [By Ted O’Neil]-
An ever-expanding list of Republican lawmakers have signed on to oppose today’s certification of Electoral College results, thereby trying to block former Vice President Joe Biden from becoming the nation’s 46th president.
“On January 6th I will vote to give President Trump and the American people the fair hearing they deserve and support objections to the Electoral College certification process,” Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia said in a statement Monday night.
Her fellow Georgia Republican David Perdue said on Fox News Sunday he is urging his colleagues to object.
Both were involved in runoff races yesterday, January 5th.
A dozen Senate Republicans and at least 140 House Republicans have said they will object. Individual states last month certified their Electoral College votes, which showed Biden finishing with 306 votes to Trump’s 232. A minimum of 270 is required to claim the presidency.
The Constitution requires both chambers of Congress to meet before the inauguration to count the electoral votes of each state. What has in the past been a ceremonial event, several GOP legislators signed a letter pledging to object unless Congress agreed to investigate election results.
The official process begins with Vice President Mike Pence presiding over a joint session beginning at 1 p.m., at which time each state’s results are announced in alphabetical order. If a written objection is made regarding any state by one member of the House and one member of the Senate, members will adjourn to their separate chambers for up to two hours of debate.
Unless both the House and Senate vote to reject the count for the state in question, the objection is rejected and the process begins again with the next state.
It is difficult to see any objections succeeding in the Democratic-controlled House, and several Republicans in the Senate have asked their colleagues not to object, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who acknowledged Biden as the winner.
In a memo to Democratic colleagues, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “At the end of the day, which could be the middle of the night, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will officially be declared the next President and Vice President of the United States.”
Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri have been at the forefront of the fight.
“We went into this election with the country deeply divided and deeply polarized. And we’ve seen in the last two months unprecedented allegations of voter fraud,” he said in a statement. “I think we have an obligation to the voters and an obligation to the Constitution to see that this election was lawful.”
For his part, Hawley said, “I cannot vote to certify Electoral College results on January 6th without raising the fact that some states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state elections laws. And I cannot vote to certify without pointing out the unprecedented effort of mega corporations, including Facebook and Twitter, to interfere in this election in support of Joe Biden.”
