GOP forges last try to flip election
WASHINGTON — Every four years, a joint session of Congress proceeds mostly as a constitutional formality, with lawmakers gathering to affirm the results of a presidential election by opening each Electoral College vote to determine whether it “seems to be regular in form and authentic.”
This time, with President Donald Trump claiming to have won the election and lobbing claims of widespread voter fraud, Republican lawmakers — likely including some from the Pittsburgh region — are eyeing the ceremonial affair as a final venue to object to the election results.
Nearly a dozen Republican senators and senators-elect, led by Sen. Ted Cruz, of Texas, said Saturday they will reject electors from certain states won by President-elect Joe Biden, citing allegationsof voter fraud and calling for an emergency 10-day audit of the results — an unprecedented attempt to thwart the democratic process.
The senators contend they are not trying to reverse the
election results but rather want to give voice to those who don’t believe it was conducted fairly, despite no investigation or court finding any evidence of wrongdoing.
Still,Mr. Trump and many of his allies see the joint session of Congress to certify Mr. Biden’s victory as their last stand to contest the election results, even if doing so is largely political theater to delayMr. Biden’s win.
Republican Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana, John Neely Kennedy of Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Mike Braun of Indiana — along with Sens.-elect Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama — said they will join Mr. Cruz.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., had already said he plans to contest the Electoral College vote certification. Rep. Mo Brooks,R-Ala., has pledged to raise concerns in the House. Rep. Louie Gohmert, RTexas, filed a lawsuit to effectively allow the results to be overturned during the session, but it was thrown out by afederal judge Friday.
Amid the drama, Congress will convene at 1 p.m. Wednesday — two days after lawmakers are sworn in for the new session — to receive the electoral votes, delivered in mahogany boxes carried by pages onto the House floor. The votes, cast on Dec. 14 in state-certified elections, reflect the popular vote in each state: Mr. Biden received 306 votes, while Mr. Trump received 232.
Andlast week, Mr. Trump
teased the upcoming action on Twitter for his supporters: “See you in Washington, DC, on January 6th,” he tweeted. “Don’t miss it.”
The challenges threaten to upend what is, by law, a limited review of electoral votes. It only takes one lawmaker from each the House and Senate to delay certification of Mr. Biden’s victory.
Edward Foley, an election law expert at Ohio State University, wrote in an op-ed published in The Washington Post last week that any move to launch a do-over of the 2020 presidential election would be clearly outside of theU.S. Constitution.
The electoral law, written at a time where counterfeit papers could pose a serious risk, requires Congress to simply authenticate the documents and the appointment of each state’s electors, he wrote.
“This is the opposite of Trump allies’ feverish imaginings about using the session as an opportunity for congressional fact-finding on whether fraud or error tainted the tally of the state’s popular vote,” Mr. Foley wrote, adding: “Never mind that Trump has no evidence to support his assertion.”
That is not expected to deter many Republicans, including those from the Pittsburgh region. They have backed Mr. Trump’s claims and refused to acknowledge Mr. Biden’s win.
Those lawmakers continue to allege voter fraud even after dozens of Republican-led lawsuits challenging the election have been thrown out in courts across the country, and after the U.S. Supreme Court, with a conservative super-majority, unanimously declined to halt the election process to hear emergency arguments.
A lawsuit filed by Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, and Sean Parnell, who lost in November in Pennsylvania’s 17th District to Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Mt. Lebanon, is moving forward with the support of 28 House Republicans. A Dec. 23 amicus brief — arguing the state’s 2019 mail-in voting law is unconstitutional — was signed by Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, RPeters; Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Centre; and Rep. John Joyce, R-Blair.
Dr. Joyce announced Dec. 31 he planned to object during the joint session, saying Pennsylvania’s elections
“spurred rabid distrust in the system.”
The region’s three other GOP members also said they plan to vote against the certification of Mr. Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania.
There is some precedent for members causing a fuss, but those were swiftly rejected.
During the joint session in 2017, a group of House Democrats objected to Mr. Trump’s win in key states, citing Russian election interference. But Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton had conceded following the election, and no Democratic senator joined the objection, so the efforts were shut down by the Republican majority in both chambers.
If an objection is raised by a member of each chamber, lawmakers would have to debate it for up to two hours, according to the process laid out by the Congressional Research Service. They could then vote on whether to reject the electoral results of the state in question. Both chambers would have to agree to toss out the votes — a move that has not occurred in modern history.
A senator and representative have joined on an objection
only twice since the law went into effect in 1887.
In 2005, then-Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., joined Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, in objecting to Ohio’s 20 electoral votes for President George W. Bush in the 2004 election. The lawmakers complained of voting irregularities in that state related to long lines, lack of uniform policies on provisional ballots, and the allocation of voting machines.
After debate, the House ultimately voted 267-31 against the challenge. The Senate voted 74-1 to confirm the results, with Ms. Boxer standing in opposition.
In 1969, an objection was raised against the North Carolina electoral vote after one elector, who had pledged to support Richard Nixon, decided to instead cast a vote for George Wallace. That objection over a so-called faithless elector was rejected 5833 in the Senate and 228-170 in the House.
Top Senate Republicans have urged their colleagues to refrain from contesting the results, with party officials repeatedly telling reporters they believed no one would entertain objections lodged byHouse Republicans.
“The thing they’ve got to remember is, it’s just not going anywhere,” Senate Majority Whip John Thune, RS.D., told reporters Dec. 21 on the sideline of COVID-19 relief negotiations. “I mean, in the Senate, it would go down like a shot dog.”
But on Wednesday, Mr. Hawley defied his party’s leaders and said he would object in order to cast a spotlight on alleged election irregularities.
The objections will put more pressure on Vice President Mike Pence, who will preside over the joint session in his capacity as president of the Senate, to subvert normal election protocols.
Experts expect both chambers to roundly reject any GOP objection. Many prominent Republicans — including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, RKy. — have congratulated Mr. Biden and pledged to move on. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said last month that he had spoken with Mr. Biden and discussed ways to work together.
But the damage could be lasting, said Trevor Potter, a Republican who is a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission and the current president of the Campaign Legal Center.
“It’s not the threat of actually changing the outcome that’s most worrisome here,” Mr. Potter wrote in The Washington Post last month. “Instead, it’s the danger of spreading disinformation and undermining the perceived legitimacy of American democracy.”