As expected, Texas Senator Ted Cruz will lead the charge in opposition to the Jan. 6 certification of the 2020 presidential electoral votes President-elect Joe Biden received, if Congress does not call for a 10-day audit of the election results.
Sen. Cruz becomes the latest Republican senator, along with freshman Congresswoman-elect Kat Cammack (R-FL), to announced that they will oppose the presidential election results.
“Given my constitutional duty and the fact that thousands of sworn affidavits detailing specific election irregularities remain unresolved, I will object to the electoral college certification process on January 6,” stated Rep.Cammack
Rep. Cammack joins fellow Floridian's Reps. Matt Gaetz, Byron Donalds, Michael Waltz, and Maria Elvira Salazar, in announcing their intention to rebuke President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral votes in certain contested states.
While congressional Democrats call the move treasonous and unprecedented, there is actually precedent on this matter.
The group of lawmakers cites the 1877 race between Samuel Tilden and Rutherford Hayes in which there were allegations of widespread fraud in several states.
According to a Fox News story, "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 in the statement. "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."
"We should follow that precedent. To wit, 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. Once 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."
In addition to the 1877 case, in 2005, Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones both objected, and in 2017, a group of House Democrats objected to Trump’s victory but failed to move the needle in the U.S. Senate where Democrats sat on their hands.
The Senators: Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; James Lankford, R-Okla.; Steve Daines, R-Mont.; John Kennedy, R-La.; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Mike Braun, R-Ind.; as well as Sens.-elect Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.; Roger Marshall, R-Kansas; Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. Senator Josh Hawley has already stated that he would be contesting the electors.
