By Dave Boyer |The Washington Times
A group of Republican senators and senators-elect led by
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas pledged on Saturday to object to the congressional
certification of President-elect Joseph R. Biden’s Electoral College votes next
week unless Congress approves
an emergency 10-day audit of the results by an election commission.
“Voter fraud has posed a persistent challenge in our
elections, although its breadth and scope are disputed. By any measure, the
allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election exceed any in our
lifetimes,” the lawmakers said in a statement.
They said Congress “should
immediately appoint an Electoral Commission, with full investigatory and
fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election
returns in the disputed states.”
Their announcement brings to a dozen the number of GOP
senators and senators-elect to defy Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of
Kentucky, who has urged his colleagues not to contest Mr. Biden’s winning vote
total.
Mr. Cruz is being joined in the effort by Republican
Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of
Montana, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Mike
Braun of Indiana. Also taking part are Sens.-elect Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming,
Roger Marshall of Kansas, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville of
Alabama.
Earlier, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri became the first
GOP senator to announce he would object to Mr. Biden’s votes from several
contested battleground states where President Trump is alleging widespread
election fraud.
The new group of GOP senators said the election “featured
unprecedented allegations of voter fraud and illegal conduct.”
They said Democrats objected to the presidential election
results in 1969, 2001, 2005 and 2017.
“And, in both 1969 and 2005, a Democratic Senator joined
with a Democratic House Member in forcing votes in both houses on whether to
accept the presidential electors being challenged,” they said.
They want Congress to
appoint an Electoral Commission to conduct a 10-day emergency audit of the
election returns in states where the results are disputed. That timetable means
a review could conceivably be completed before Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.
The senators said in their statement that the 1876
election between Samuel J. Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes involved a similar
level of fraud allegations in multiple states.
“In 1877, Congress did
not ignore those allegations, nor did the media simply dismiss those raising
them as radicals trying to undermine democracy,” the lawmakers said.
“Instead, Congress appointed
an Electoral Commission — consisting of five Senators, five House Members, and
five Supreme Court Justices — to consider and resolve the disputed returns.”
They said, “We should follow that precedent. …Once [the
audit is] completed, individual states would evaluate the Commission’s findings
and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their
vote, if needed.”
Without such an emergency review, they said, they will
vote against the certification of Mr. Biden’s victory.
“Accordingly, we intend to vote on January 6 to reject
the electors from disputed states as not ‘regularly given’ and ‘lawfully
certified’ (the statutory requisite), unless and until that emergency 10-day
audit is completed,” they said. “These are matters worthy of the Congress, and
entrusted to us to defend. We do not take this action lightly. We are acting
not to thwart the democratic process, but rather to protect it. And every one
of us should act together to ensure that the election was lawfully conducted
under the Constitution and to do everything we can to restore faith in our
Democracy.”
A group of House Republicans led by Rep. Mo Brooks of
Alabama announced weeks ago an effort to object to Mr. Biden’s votes from swing
states. The president has been strategizing with that group.
The House and Senate would need to agree to reject a
given state’s slate of presidential electors. If Mr. Biden’s electoral vote
total of 306 was reduced below 270, the number needed to win the presidency,
the Democratic-led House would choose the next president.
Mrs. Blackburn and Mr. Hagerty of Tennessee said in a
joint statement that they are taking the action “without any reservation.”
“Since November 3, hardworking men and women from across
Tennessee have contacted us to justifiably express anger and concern that some
states conducted the recent election in a manner that did not respect the rule
of law and may have violated many of their state constitutions as well as
Article II of the U.S. Constitution,” they said. “Many are concerned about the
sanctity of the one-person, one-vote guarantee.”
They said the nation’s founders “understood that it is
ultimately the people’s job to preserve the sanctity of these most fundamental
American systems, and so they charged the people’s representatives in Congress with
a specific role in the process. We plan to exercise that role fully in the new Congress.”
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/jan/2/gop-senators-object-bidens-electoral-votes-unless-/
