Congress leaders unveil rules governing the score of the Electoral College

A group of seven House Republicans – including members of the Freedom Caucus such as Ken Buck (Colo.) And Chip Roy (Texas), as well as election candidate Nancy Mace (SC) and libertarian representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) – on Sunday afternoon issued a rare and extensive statement opposing the attempt to challenge the election. The statement was also signed by Representatives Kelly Armstrong (RN.D.), Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) And Tom McClintock (R-California).

They argue that the constitution makes it clear that states – not Congress – are responsible for electing voters, even though they have said they are ‘furious about the widespread abuse in our electoral system’.

“We must respect the authority of the states here,” the legislators wrote in their statement, obtained by POLITICO. ‘While it may frustrate our immediate political goals, we have sworn an oath to advance the Constitution beyond our policy goals. We must count the electoral votes submitted by the states. ”

A handful of Senate Republicans have also come out strongly against the Trump-driven challenges. In addition to sens. Ben Sasse, Mitt Romney and Pat Toomey, who violently tackled the growing challenges, have Sens. Susan Collins and Roger Wicker indicated Sunday that they will also face challenges. The Washington Post also revealed Sunday that Trump had called Georgia State Secretary Brad Raffensperger a day earlier and pressured him to “find” enough votes to stop Biden’s victory in the state.

Some Trump allies have tried to throw the procedures away altogether. They hoped to empower Vice President Mike Pence, who will chair the session, to unilaterally reject Biden’s voters; it is unclear whether members will try to object to it or change the rules when they come to the House and Senate floors on Sunday night. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) sued Pence last week in an attempt to overturn the proceedings, but he was dismissed without ceremony by two federal courts.

The procedures, if adopted, require Pence to submit all papers pretending to be voting. He should read it alphabetically by the state and give legislators a chance to object to it. These years-long proceedings allow only two lawmakers – a single House member and a senator acting together – to halt the process and force the House and Senate to break up the joint sitting and two hours a day debate the challenges before voting on them. return them to the joint session.

In a letter to Democrats, Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated that the full caucus would hold a call Monday at 9 a.m. to discuss how the sixth of January would unfold, and that separate strategic sessions would be convened for Democrats coming from the states that are not expected to be. challenged by Trump’s allies, such as Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.

“Over the years, we have experienced many challenges in the House, but no situation is consistent with the Trump presidency and Trump’s contempt for the will of the people,” Pelosi said. She indicated that representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jamie Raksin (D-Md.) And Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) Took leadership roles in the setback after the GOP effort. . .

Pelosi also stressed that Democrats should not use the challenges of holding a debate on the presidency of Donald Trump.

“While there is no doubt about the outcome of the Biden-Harris presidency, our further success is in convincing more of the American people to trust our democratic system,” she said.

There is virtually no doubt that the challenges for Biden’s victory will fail. The democratically led House will oppose them, and enough Republicans in the now divided Senate have indicated that they will also reject the challenges. But the scale of the pressure – with dozens of Republicans in the House and at least a quarter of the Senate’s GOP – will be unprecedented, aided by the full support of the incumbent president, who encouraged supporters en masse in January in Washington to assemble. 6 to protest the session.

Some Trump allies encourage Pence to try to control the session, regardless of the rules, and simply refuse to represent Biden’s voters in states that have challenged Trump. But Pence refused to accept the strategy in court, and Congress would also refuse to present such an attempt.

The processes in the proposed rules were enshrined in a federal law passed in 1887, called the Electoral Act, a statute adopted to address the disastrous 1876 election. The procedures have since been applied by every Congress to govern the Electoral College on 6 January. certification meeting. However, constitutional scholars have debated whether the House and Senate can be bound by the 130-year-old law and whether they can supplement it to clearly define some of its vague aspects, such as the Pence authorities as presiding officer and the law’s requirements all ” alleged “election votes are instituted.

One of the questions about Pence’s role is whether he intends to nominate Republicans who claim to cast ballots for Trump in key states that Biden has won. Trump’s prospective voters met on December 14, the day on which the formal members of the Electoral College met in their respective state capitals and held mockery to cast votes for Trump. If he does, Congress will require by law to count only those certified by state governments, but it will continue to bolster Trump’s efforts to delegitimize the process.