BY BOWEN XIAO | The Epoch Times
President
Donald Trump gestures as he walks on the South Lawn of the White House, on Dec.
12, 2020. (Patrick Semansky/AP Photo)
Republican electors in four states said on Dec. 14 that
they would cast their procedural votes for President Donald Trump and Vice
President Mike Pence, the latest update contesting the results of the 2020
election.
Republican electors in Pennsylvania, Georgia,
Nevada, Arizona all said they voted for Trump. It comes as their
states formally appointed Democratic electors who voted for Democrat Joe Biden
and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).
The Pennsylvania GOP said in a news release that electors met in Harrisburg
to “cast a conditional vote” for Trump and Pence “at the request of the Trump
campaign.” Their vote comes as Democratic electors cast their Electoral
College votes for Biden and Harris.
The Pennsylvania GOP cited the 1960 presidential
election between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, who would become the
eventual winner.
“We took this procedural vote to preserve any legal
claims that may be preserved going forward,” said Pennsylvania Trump campaign
chairman Bernie Comfort in a statement.
In Georgia, David Shafer, the chairman of the state’s
Republican Party, said that GOP electors made their move today because the “President’s lawsuit contesting the
Georgia election is still pending.”
“The Republican nominees for Presidential Elector met
today at noon at the State Capitol today and cast their votes for President and
Vice President,” Shafer said in a Twitter post. “Had we not meet today and cast our votes,
the President’s pending election contest would have been effectively mooted.
Our action today preserves his rights under Georgia law.”
The same thing was done in Nevada, with the state’s
Republican electors casting their vote for Trump and Pence. In a Twitter
post by the Nevada GOP, they stated, “History made today.”
Arizona’s Republican presidential electors also voted for
Trump and Pence, according to the state’s Republican party.
The Electoral College votes are cast on Dec. 14 and
counted on Jan. 6 during a Joint Session of Congress, when the House of
Representatives and Senate meet.
After states have completed their vote counts and
gathered the official results, “the U.S. Code (3 U.S.C. Section 6) requires
the state governors to prepare, ‘as soon as practicable,’ documents
known as Certificates of Ascertainment of the vote.”
“The certificates must list the names of the electors
chosen by the voters and the number of votes received in the popular election
results, also the names of all losing candidates for elector, and the number of
votes they received,” according to the Congressional Research Service.
“Certificates of Ascertainment, which are often signed by
state governors, must carry the seal of the state. One copy is forwarded to the
Archivist of the United States, while six duplicates of the Certificate of
Ascertainment must be provided to the electors by December 14, the date on which
they meet.”
According to the U.S. Code, when the House and Senate
meet, they have to look into “all the certificates and papers purporting to be
certificates of the electoral votes.” Several Republican members of Congress
have said they would attempt to object to the counting of the Electoral College
votes for a state, which would then trigger a series of debates and votes.
White House adviser Stephen Miller told Fox News on Dec.
14 that alternate groups of electors were being chosen in several states,
claiming that it would lead to Trump’s reelection.
“The only date in the Constitution is Jan. 20. So we have
more than enough time to right the wrong of this fraudulent election result and
certify Donald Trump as the winner of the election,” Miller said on “Fox &
Friends,” referring to Inauguration Day.
Competing Electors
States with close contests between Trump and his rival
Biden were expected to potentially produce competing slates of electors, one
certified by the governor and the other by the legislature.
It is unclear if all of the Republican electors in the
five states were formally certified. Either way, Congress is likely to end up
with competing slates of electors come Jan. 6, when the two chambers are
scheduled to count the votes. While a process exists to resolve disputes
between duelling electors, it has never been tested in the courts.
Approving a set of electors would require the majority in
both chambers. The balance of power in the Senate will be determined by the
results of the two runoff elections in Georgia. Should Democrats win both
seats, a 50-50 tie in the Senate would hand the tiebreaker vote to the vice
president.
If lawmakers cannot agree on a set of electors, the
country will find itself in uncharted territory, which may prompt intervention
from the Supreme Court. If history is a guide, the state delegations in the
House may have to pick a president. Republicans have the majority of
delegations.
Epoch Times reporter Jack Phillips and
Reuters contributed to this report.
Follow Bowen on Twitter: @BowenXiao_
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RELATED
ARTICLES
Republican Electors Cast Their Votes for
President Trump
By Katie Pavlich | Townhall.com
Source: AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Republican electors from a number of swing states cast
their Electoral College votes for President Donald Trump and Vice President
Mike Pence Monday afternoon.
"Today, Arizona's 11 Republican presidential
electors met to cast their votes for President Donald Trump and Vice President
Mike Pence. With ongoing legal challenges to the 2020 presidential election
still being heard in the courts, and state legislatures across the country
holding hearings on election fraud and voting irregularities, it is imperative
that the proper electors are counted by Congress," Arizona Republican
Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward released in a statement.
Republican electors from Nevada, Georgia and Pennsylvania
made similar moves.
"At the request of the Trump campaign, the
Republican presidential electors met today in Harrisburg to cast a conditional
vote for Donald Trump and Mike Pence for President and Vice President
respectively. Today’s move by Republican party electors is fashioned after the
1960 Presidential election, in which President Nixon was declared the winner in
Hawaii. While Democrat legal challenges were pending, Democratic presidential
electors met to cast a conditional vote for John F. Kennedy to preserve their
intent in the event of future favorable legal outcomes," the Pennsylvania
Republican Party released in a statement. "The conditional resolution
states that electors certify their vote for the President and Vice President
'on the understanding that if, as a result of a final non-appealable Court
Order or other proceeding prescribed by law, [they] are ultimately recognized
as being the duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice
President of the United States of America from the State of Pennsylvania."
__________________
Republican
Electors Blocked From State Capitol in Michigan
BY ZACHARY STIEBER | The Epoch Times
Electors from the GOP are denied entry to the Michigan
Capital as the Electors from the Democratic Party cast their ballot in Lansing,
Mich., on Dec. 14, 2020. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)
Republican electors in Michigan were
blocked on Monday from accessing the state capitol in Lansing.
Democratic electors were permitted to enter.
Only people with appointments or those taking part in the
Electoral College process were able to enter the building because it was
ordered closed by legislators due to “credible threats of violence,” a Michigan State Police officer
told Republican electors while blocking their entry, video footage from the scene showed.
“We are electors,” the group of about a dozen said.
“The electors are already here, they’ve been checked in,”
the officer responded.
“Not all of them,” one of the electors rejoined.
“All 16 electors that we’ve been advised by the
governor’s staff that were going to be here to vote in the Electoral College
have been checked in and are already here,” the officer said.
The Michigan Republican Party didn’t return a voicemail.
The office of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, didn’t
pick up the phone or return a request for comment.
Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield, both Republicans, didn’t respond to emails.
Supporters of President Donald Trump gather on the steps of the Michigan state capital as the Electoral College votes, in Lansing, Mich., on Dec. 14, 2020. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)
Police officers check the perimeters as Michigan electors gather to cast their votes for the presidential election at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, Mich., on Dec. 14, 2020. (Emily Elconin/Reuters)
Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist opens the state’s Democratic electors at the state Capitol in Lansing, Mich., on Dec. 14, 2020. (Carlos Osorio/AFP via Getty Images)
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer addresses the state’s Democratic electors at the state Capitol in Lansing, Mich., on Dec. 14, 2020. (Carlos Osorio/AFP via Getty Images)
Ian Northon, an attorney with The Thomas More Foundation’s
Amistad Project, told reporters outside the capitol that the Republican
electors were “being stopped from fulfilling their constitutional duty.”
“I would call upon the Michigan legislature … to finish
their investigation so that we know which set of electors should ultimately be
chosen before a rash decision is made,” he added.
Michigan lawmakers are probing allegations of election
fraud and other irregularities.
Under the Electoral College system, voters choose the
presidential candidate they support but they’re actually voting for which slate
of electors they want to cast a vote.
The electors from the party whose candidate wins more
votes in a state then cast their votes for the party’s candidate about a month
after the election.
Those votes are counted by a joint session of Congress on
Jan. 6, 2021.
In multiple states where Democratic presidential nominee
Joe Biden was listed as the winner in the certified vote count, Republican
electors on Monday cast their votes for President Donald Trump.
Georgia GOP Chair David Shafer said the move was due to a
lawsuit from Trump’s campaign pending in the state.
“Had we not meet today and cast our votes, the
President’s pending election contest would have been effectively mooted. Our
action today preserves his rights under Georgia law,” he said in a statement.
That sets up some states having two groups of electors, a
situation known as dueling electors, or alternate electors.
The House of Representatives and Senate will have to
decide next month which set of electors to select. If the chambers split, that
could lead a state’s electors being rejected by Vice President Mike Pence, the
president of the Senate.
The situation played out in 1876, when two sets of
electors in several states submitted votes. Republican Rutherford Hayes was
eventually declared the winner by one electoral vote, after the parties reached
an agreement that that saw Hayes remove all federal troops from the former
Confederacy.
Two sets of electors could also bolster the popularity of
plans to file objections to the vote counts of some states. Three members of
the lower chamber have said they will file objections; two senators are pondering joining them.
Trump adviser Stephen Miller said the situation could lead
to Trump winning, pending the outcome of lawsuits in the states.
“That means that if we win these cases in the courts,
that we can direct that the ultimate slate of electors be certified. The state
legislatures in Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, can do the same. And
likewise, Congress has that opportunity as well to do the right thing,” Miller
said on “Fox & Friends.”
Follow Zachary on Twitter: @zackstieber
______________________________
Alternate
Slate of Electors Could Lead to Trump Win, Adviser Says
Democratic
presidential nominee Joe Biden, left, and President Donald Trump in file
photographs. (Getty Images; AP Photo)
Alternate Slate of Electors Could Lead to Trump Win,
Adviser Says
A White House adviser on Monday predicted alternate
groups of electors would be chosen in multiple states, and that
the process would lead to President Donald Trump winning reelection.
“The only date in the Constitution is January 20. So we
have more than enough time to right the wrong of this fraudulent election
result and certify Donald Trump as the winner of the election,” Stephen Miller
said on “Fox & Friends,” referring to Inauguration Day.
“As we speak today, an alternate slate of electors in the
contested states is going to vote, and we’re going to send those results up to
Congress,” he added.
Under the Electoral College system, electors are meeting
in their respective states on Dec. 14 to cast votes for the next American
president.
The votes are then conveyed to Congress, which meets
early next year to count them.
Miller was referring to part of an obscure process that
some Republicans see unfolding.
Usually, the candidate who gets the most votes in a state
gets that state’s electoral votes. But state legislatures are empowered through
the Constitution to decide how electors are appointed. Republican-controlled
legislatures in key battleground states could choose a slate of electors for
Trump even as a group of Democrat electors casts their votes for Democratic
presidential nominee Joe Biden.
That could lead to two groups from one state descending
on Washington to try to convince lawmakers there to count their vote, and not
the other group’s, during the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.
The House of Representatives and Senate are guided to
review “All the certificates and papers purporting to be certificates of the
electoral votes” during the session.
Disputes could fuel the appetite to file objections to
the votes from certain states. Federal law lets a U.S. representative and
senator band together to file an objection to a state, triggering separate
votes in each congressional body.
President
Donald Trump’s senior adviser Stephen Miller waves to supporters prior to a
Marine One departure from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, on
Aug. 6, 2020. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)Terje
Anderson, left, one of the three members of Vermont’s Electoral College, casts
his vote at the Statehouse in Montpelier, Vt., on Monday, Dec. 14, 2020.
(Wilson Ring/AP Photo)
If a majority in each chamber approves the objection,
that state’s electoral votes are nullified.
Counting the certified votes at present, Biden would win
the presidency. But if several states are taken off the board, both candidates
would be below the 270 electoral vote benchmark.
That would lead to a little-known secondary system: the
House would choose the president, while the Senate would choose the vice
president.
Democrats have a majority in the House but each state
would only have one vote under the system, giving Republicans an edge.
Trump’s campaign has urged state legislatures to take
back their power to appoint electors, but none have so far done so.
Miller said the alternate electors were important in the
event the Trump campaign wins cases in court between Dec. 14 and January.
“That means that if we win these cases in the courts,
that we can direct that the ultimate state of electors be certified. The state
legislatures in Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, can do the same. And
likewise, Congress has that opportunity as well to do the right thing,” Miller
argued.
He asserted that three “Constitutional defects” led to
Trump losing: failure to carry out proper signature matching in Georgia,
ballots cast in Wisconsin by people who weren’t actually “indefinitely
confined,” and uneven treatment of voters in Pennsylvania through the so-called
curing of ballots.
“Those three violations alone make Donald Trump the
winner of the 2020 election,” Miller said.
The Biden team didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Follow Zachary on Twitter: @zackstieber
_____________________________________
Number of Congress Members Planning to Challenge Election Results Expected to Grow
(Left) President Donald Trump and (Right) Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, in file photos. (Getty Images)
Trio working to convince senators to join them.
More members of Congress are expected to commit to
challenging the results of the Nov. 3 election during the upcoming joint
session.
“There’s three of us that have publicly said that we will
refuse to certify Electoral College votes for Joe Biden, and I definitely have
a very strong feeling that there will be more of us,” Rep.-elect Marjorie
Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) told The Epoch Times.
“The number will grow, because I’m talking to a lot of
people. Seventy-five million Americans voted for President Trump, and right now
70 percent of that number feel that the election was stolen and that fraud has
taken place. We know that we have big problems here in Georgia. So I think this
is definitely something the American people will be supporting us in our
efforts.”
Greene, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), and Rep.-elect Barry
Moore (R-Ala.) have publicly committed to challenge the election results.
“I think as the process becomes more public and the media
starts to get the word out that this is our plan, I feel like there’s good
conservative people, ethical people—I’d love to see some Democrats join us,”
Moore told The Epoch Times.
“I think we’ll have some join us, certainly some people
who say they will stand by the president on the campaign trail—it’s time now to
stand and to make sure we get this right.”
Greene and Moore will be sworn in on Jan. 3, 2021, three
days before the joint session of Congress. Brooks won reelection.
According to the current vote count, Biden, the
Democratic presidential nominee, narrowly won the election by capturing
traditional Democratic states and most swing states.
President Donald Trump and other Republicans allege fraud
and other irregularities occurred during the election, such as extended mail-in
ballot deadlines that they assert were unlawful.
The Epoch Times will not call the race until all ongoing lawsuits and
related matters have been resolved.
Under the Electoral College system, Americans who vote
for a presidential candidate are in actuality voting for a slate of electors
who go on to vote for the candidate who won the state’s total vote
count. Each state has a certain number of electoral votes based on its
population.
Electors are scheduled to meet and vote on Dec. 14 in
their respective states. They will sign certificates of the vote, which are
sent to the vice president, the archivist, and the secretary of state and
district court judge in their respective states.
Electors can cast votes for candidates who don’t win the
popular vote, but doing so is unusual.
The final decision on the votes will come before Congress
early next year. Both congressional chambers will meet in January to count
the votes and declare the winners of each state.
Then-Vice
President Joseph Biden, presides over the counting of the electoral votes from
the 2016 presidential election during a joint session of Congress in Washington
on Jan. 6, 2017. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Objections can be filed but must be endorsed by at least
one senator and one representative. If an objection is registered properly, the
joint session will break up and each chamber will meet separately to consider
and vote on the objection. A simple majority can pass the objection, rendering
the electoral votes for the state in question null.
Democrat representatives registered objections in 2016
but no senators would join them.
No senators have yet committed to a challenge.
Both Greene and Moore have been working to sway senators
and senators-elect, but each declined to identify any by name on the record.
“I’m in the process of talking to several senators. I don’t
want to say their names right now, but I feel pretty hopeful that I’ll be able
to bring out a senator. I think that we’ll be able to get one,” Greene said.
Inquiries sent to every Republican senator and
senator-elect who will or who will possibly be in the next Congress weren’t
immediately returned.
Rep.-elect
Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) arrives to the Hyatt Regency hotel on Capitol
Hill in Washington on Nov. 12, 2020. (Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)
Trump thanked Brooks last week for promising to challenge
the results. His campaign didn’t respond when asked whether the president is in
contact with lawmakers regarding the planned challenges. Biden’s team didn’t
immediately return an inquiry.
The challenges are aimed to trigger a little-known,
secondary system of electing a president if no candidate reaches the 270
electoral votes required to win. The House of Representatives chooses the
president and the Senate picks the vice president. In that scenario, each state
has a single vote in each chamber. Republicans have the majority under that
system in the House and the Senate, making the option attractive to them.
Brooks, Greene, and Moore plan to file objections because
they believe Trump won the election despite the current vote count.
“I’ve lived in Georgia my entire life, and I know for a
fact that Georgia did not elect Joe Biden for president. We reelected President
Trump,” Greene said, pointing to testimonies given last week during a state legislative hearing in Georgia, alleged
election fraud, the video with suitcase-like containers, and
counties finding thousands of uncounted ballots during a hand
audit.
Greene and Moore pointed to the large crowds Trump drew
in pre-election rallies, contrasting them to Biden spending months at home and,
when he emerged, holding events with just dozens of attendees.
“I was an early supporter of Trump in 2016, and people
were concerned that he could beat Hillary, and I said, ‘Watch the rallies, just
look at the numbers.’ And then, this year, the same exact thing, people would
say, ‘Well, he’s behind in the polls,’ and I’d say, ‘Watch the rallies,'” Moore
said.
“My only concern is that they steal it; I never dreamed
that they would actually try to steal it. The data just doesn’t line up to me,
and then I have concerns about process. Regardless—regardless—of who ends up
winning, we’ve got to get this right. The American people need to have
confidence in the process.”
Follow Zachary on Twitter: @zackstieber
