Now that the Electoral College has cast their votes, the next crucial date in the process of the election of the President of the United States is January 6th, 2020. This is the date in which Congress will count the votes of the Electoral College. I should state that again because it is of much significance. The job of Congress is to COUNT the votes of states who have already certified their election votes and had the corresponding votes cast by members of the Electoral College. That is the only constitutional role of Congress in the process. Many have suggested that Republicans holding out to overturn the election should object to the vote count and effort to claim election fraud installing Trump as President of the United States. This, again, is not their intended role in the process according to the US Constitution. Determining the result of the elections is the responsibility of the Electoral College rather than Congress.
US Constitution Article 2, Section 1 Superseded by the 12 Amendment
The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; -- the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; -- The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President,
It is each state’s job to certify the votes in their elections. States certify their results after reviewing disputed ballots, conducting post-election audits, performing automatic recounts or recounts asked for by either political campaigns, and double-checking numbers for accuracy. Recounts were granted in states questioned by the Trump campaign and legal efforts were mounted to contest the results in the swing states. This was well within their legal right. Nothing presented in court was sufficient enough to warrant any state to question the results of their elections. Each state including the District of Columbia went on to certify the votes in their respective states. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton then filed suit in an effort to get a case before the Supreme Court in an effort to invalidate the ballots of millions of voters in four battleground states -- Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The case was dismissed for lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution” because Texas had not “demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections.” In other words, They have no place telling other states how to run their elections, nor will the Supreme Court interfere with the election processes of a state. How elections are run is the right of each state not to be interfered with by other states or the federal government.
It appears as though some Republicans intend to object to the vote count on January 6, 2020. The basis of this objection stems from Title 3 Section 15 of the US code. The origins of this process were put into place after the debacle that was the election of 1876 and has been updated as part of the US Code in the years since. It lays out the process for members of Congress to object to the vote counts.
The Process:
The State votes are called out by the President of the Senate to be recorded in the journal of both houses, the President of the Senate will then ask for objections. It would require a formal written objection that “clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof...” details the nature of the objection. The objection would have to come from at least one Senator and one Member of the House of Representatives.” So if there are objections, Congress will break to their respected houses to discuss the objections. Counter to what has spread across the internet, this is not a 1 vote per state delegation vote. The House and Senate would have a full vote to determine if the vote should be recorded in the journal. No electoral vote from any State which shall have been regularly given by electors whose appointments has been lawfully certified may be rejected by a single house, but they must concurrently reject the vote. In other words, both houses would have to agree to the objection. Without concurrent votes, the votes are announced and entered into the official journal of both houses of Congress with no other action necessary.
A successful objection of a vote has no precedent in US History; therefore, there has yet to be a case that would challenge it’s constitutionality. So let's explore the unlikely scenario where Republican members of Congress are successful in their objections to the vote count, the case would undoubtedly go to the Supreme Court as it would overturn certified votes from states by a body of the federal governing eroding the rights of the state. The Supreme Court would have standing in this case as it would be the federal government overturning an election the states have already certified as free and fair. They have also identified that it is the right of each state to conduct their elections under their own laws. Furthermore, certifying the results after suits in courts from those states by the Trump Campaign didn’t exhibit enough substantial evidence to cause any sort of delay in the certification of those results. If they had, the states wouldn’t have been able to certify the votes. Such a political move calls into question these representatives' loyalty to their party or even their country. Such loyalty would seem to be directed towards a single candidate.
Republican have long been known for, and have long argued against, government overreach. Traditionally, Republicans have advocated for state rights and small government. It goes against the party’s platform to be working to overturn the election results of individual states, which is perhaps the most extreme example of federal government overreach.
Democrats have struggled with party identification over the course of the last four years as well, with the party being split between moderate and more leftists ideology. An objection to the vote count would be evidence of the Republican party not only in crisis, but its principles corroding beneath it. Will the party abandon its platform and planks in order to retain the political power of a single person? If so, will party constituents migrate with them, or look to candidates that better reflect their values?
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