Senators to challenge election
WASHINGTON: US Senator Ted Cruz said yesterday he would spearhead a drive by nearly a dozen Republican senators to challenge Presidentelect Joe Biden’s victory when Electoral College results are tallied in Congress on Wednesday, a largely symbolic move that has virtually no chance of preventing Biden from taking office.
Cruz’s effort is in defiance of Senate Republican leaders, who have argued the Senate’s role in certifying the election is largely ceremonial and had been looking to avoid an extended debate on the floor about the outcome.
Cruz, the US senator from Texas, and the other 11 senators said they intended to vote to reject electors from states that had been at the centre of President Donald Trump’s unproven assertions of election fraud. They said Congress should immediately appoint a commission to conduct an emergency
10day audit of election results in those 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,’’ they said.
It was not immediately clear which states would be subject to the proposed audit, Cruz’s office said.
Democrats and some moderate Republicans blasted the move as undemocratic. Biden campaign spokesman Michael Gwin dismissed the move as theatre not supported by any evidence.