Dozen Republican Senators Plot Formal Objection to Electoral College Results

Nearly a dozen Republicans in the United States Senate are demanding a commission to audit the [...]

By Michael Hein

Nearly a dozen Republicans in the United States Senate are demanding a commission to audit the results of the 2020 presidential election. If the commission is not formed, these senators and senators-elect are reportedly threatening to formally object to the Electoral College's election of President-elect Joe Biden. However, none of these measures would have a substantive chance of changing the election results.

The U.S. Congress is set to gather on Jan. 6 to certify the Electoral College's votes in the 2020 election, but a small group of Republicans is now dissenting. According to a report by NBC News, the group is threatening "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." This would create more work for Congress and would likely shake public trust in the election further, but has virtually no chance of changing the actual results, analysts believe.

The dissenters are current Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, 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, as well as newly-elected Sens. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. That is eleven senators in total, all of whom have signed a public statement stating their threat.

The senators' objection would not have enough support to get far. Such an objection must be signed by members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and then it must pass both chambers by a simple majority to be sustained. If not, the electoral votes are counted as usual. That will likely be the case here if these senators follow through on their threat.

Dozens of investigations, audits and lawsuits been conducted on the 2020 presidential election, and none have turned up evidence of widespread voter fraud or election tampering. Biden won the election by an enormous margin, meaning that many states would need to be overturned in order to change the election results. No evidence of voter fraud on even close to that scale has been turned up.

Still, many lawmakers, pundits and average Americans are increasingly concerned to see public officials entertaining conspiracy theories like this. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota called this objection from her Republican colleagues a "publicity stunt." She went on: "It is undemocratic. It is un-American. And fortunately, it will be unsuccessful. In the end, democracy will prevail."

Congress will convene on Wednesday, Jan. 6 to certify the election results. President Donald Trump and some supporters continue to promote conspiracy theories about the election to this day.

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