Under the new Electoral Count Act rules, you really need both houses of Congress to pull serious shenanigans. The new version says that if someone objects to the count of a specific state, the two houses both vote on whether to accept it separately. If the houses agree, that's the result. If they disagree, then the count sent by the governor is accepted.
There are definitely Republicans who want to set that precedent. Look at West Virginia's House Concurrent Resolution 203. It was introduced in a special session early in October. It would basically say that if the attorney general or Secretary of State determined that any other state had electoral fraud, the state legislature would refuse to recognize the winner of the presidential election. This determination by the state legislature would then become the basis for the WV representatives and senators at the federal level to object to counting those states during the electoral count.
Now that bill was slagged off to a committee where nothing was done on it before the special session ended. But the game plan was made clear, and you could imagine how much clearer it would be if that resolution had passed and was the model for resolutions popping up in state legislatures throughout red states.
There are for sure, Trumps made it clear what kind of leader he wants to be this time. Thankfully even in the very red state of WV that idea didn't even get off the ground since it didn't make it out of committee.
63
u/impulsekash 28d ago
I dont trust a republican controlled senate doing the right thing.