TAMPA, Fla. — Congress meeting and counting electoral college votes after a presidential election is normally a formality. This Wednesday, it will be different as a dozen republican Senators and many more in the House say they will contest the slate of electors from key swing states like Pennsylvania.
Lawmakers from both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate will meet in a joint session on Wednesday. Vice President Mike Pence will preside as the votes are opened and counted. The votes will happen alphabetically by state and during this meeting there will be objections.
Republicans in both the House and Senate say they will object. The senate movement is being led by Texas Senator Ted Cruz. He’s calling for an emergency 10-day audit of election results in “disputed states.”
“We have an obligation to the constitution to ensure that this election was lawful," he said
In order to object to a state’s slate of electors at least one member of the House and one member of the Senate must do so in writing.
Each chamber then meets separately to debate and then vote on whether to accept the contested slate of electors. They have two hours to debate.
Norman Ornstein is a member of the National Task Force on Election Crises. He says with the democratic majority in the house – it’s unlikely these objections will change the results.
“There is close to zero chance that Joe Biden will be stripped of his legitimate presidency by the votes taking place in the House and Senate. But we could well have a sizable number of Republicans fundamentally saying they don't think that the election was a legitimate one. And that's troubling,” he said.
10 Tampa Bay Vote Squad’s Courtney Robinson reached out to both of Florida’s republican senators.
Senator Rick Scott is reviewing his options and his office says he will announce his decision at the appropriate time.
Senator Marco Rubio says he will not discuss the issue until Wednesday.
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