Rep. Matt Gaetz plans to challenge Electoral College votes

FPI / December 21, 2020

Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz on Saturday said that he will challenge Electoral College votes when they are counted on Jan. 6 during a Joint Session of Congress.

“So on January 6, I’m joining with the fighters in the Congress and we are going to object to electors from states that didn’t run clean elections,” Gaetz said during Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Alabama Republican Rep. Mo Brooks was the first to announce his intention to object to the Electoral College votes on Jan. 6.

Objections during the joint session must be made in writing by at least one House member and senator. If the objection meets requirements, the joint session pauses and each house withdraws to their own chamber to debate the question for a maximum of two hours. The House and Senate will then vote separately to accept or reject the objection, which requires a majority vote from both chambers.

If one chamber accepts and the other rejects, then according to federal law the “the votes of the electors whose appointment shall have been certified by the executive of the State, under the seal thereof, shall be counted.”

Alabama Republican Sen.-elect Tommy Tuberville has suggested that he may join the planned objection by Republican members of the House of Representatives.

Gaetz said that he had spoken to Tuberville, who told him that he plans on joining the effort.

“I had a chance to speak to coach Tuberville just moments ago and he says we are done running plays from the establishment’s losing playbook and it’s time to fight,” Gaetz said. “Now coach Tubervillve went for it a lot on fourth down when he was coaching at Auburn. They called him the Mississippi riverboat gambler. The odds may be tough, it may be fourth and long but we’re going for it on January 6.”

The odds, indeed, will be tough. One Democrat said there is no chance the move will succeed.

“Under the law, both the House and Senate would need to agree to object to the real electors and accept the fake electors,” Rep. Ted Lieu of California tweeted. “There is 0.00 chance the House reverses the election.”

Free Press International