11 GOP Senators Announce They Will Not Vote To Certify 2020 Presidential Election

Jan. 2, 2021 (EIRNS)—Eleven Republican senators issued a joint statement today announcing that on Jan. 6 they will not vote to certify the Electoral College vote tally and will call for an emergency audit of the vote counts in several disputed states before supporting certification of the 2020 Presidential election. They are Ted Cruz (R-TX), Ron Johnson (R-WI), James Lankford (R-OK), Steve Daines (R-MT), John Kennedy (R-LA), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Mike Braun (R-IN), and Senators-Elect Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Bill Hagerty (R-TN).

“The election of 2020, like the election of 2016, was hard fought and, in many swing states, narrowly decided. The 2020 election, however, featured unprecedented allegations of voter fraud, violations and lax enforcement of election law, and other voting irregularities,” the statement said. “Voter fraud has posed a persistent challenge in our elections, although its breadth and scope are disputed. By any measure, the allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election exceed any in our lifetimes.”

They observed that 39% of Americans believe that the election “was rigged,” even though most Democratic members of Congress and the news media disagree. “But, whether or not our elected officials or journalists believe it, that deep distrust of our democratic processes will not magically disappear,” the statement said. “It should concern us all. And it poses an ongoing threat to the legitimacy of any subsequent administrations.”

The statement also observes that the Supreme Court has spurned two opportunities to hear the evidence of vote fraud. Therefore, “On January 6, it is incumbent on Congress to vote on whether to certify the 2020 election results. That vote is the lone constitutional power remaining to consider and force resolution of the multiple allegations of serious voter fraud.”

The senators call on Congress to 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.” Following the long history of precedents, “we intend to vote on January 6 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,” the senators announced. “We are not naïve. We fully expect most if not all Democrats, and perhaps more than a few Republicans, to vote otherwise. But support of election integrity should not be a partisan issue.” Highly biased press reports of the senators’ statement do note that as many as 100 Republican members of the House intend to join them.