Weekly Opinion Editorial
MATTERS
WORTHY OF CONGRESS!
by
Steve Fair
Wednesday’s opening of the Electoral
College votes before a joint session of Congress will be a lesson in U.S. government,
so tune into C-Span or set your VDR. On
Saturday eleven Republican senators indicated they would vote to not seat the
Electors from four contested seats until an Electoral Commission with full investigatory
and fact-finding authority conduct a 10-day audit of the election returns in
the disputed states. Senate Majority Whip Sen. John Thune, (R-SD) said any
objection to seating Electors from the disputed state, ‘would go down like a
shot dog.’ Four observations:
First, it would not be the first time an
Electoral Commission has been appointed.
In the 1876 presidential election between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes
and Democrat Samuel J. Tiden, there were serious allegations of election fraud
in three states. One of the states-
South Carolina- reported an impossible voter turnout of 101%- more people voted
than were registered. Congress appointed
a 15-member commission consisting of 5 senators, 5 congressman, and 5 members
of the Supreme Court. The commission
voted 8-7 to award the contested electoral votes to Hayes, giving him a one Electoral
vote victory over Tiden. Democrats
agreed to Hayes being president if Republicans would pull troops out of the
South and Hayes was sworn into office on March 5, 1887. The republic survived that very contentious election
and it will survive this one.
Second, Congress has an obligation to verify
contested states followed their own election laws. Congress is not given constitutional authority
on how individual states conduct their elections, but it is the duty of
Congress to insure states follow their laws.
There are many questions that at least 4 and up to 7 states ignored
their own election laws. Without integrity
at the ballot box, the republic is doomed.
Third, by conducting an audit, perhaps
future fraud can be avoided. At this
point, it doesn’t appear there are enough votes to get a commission
appointed. The lip service many
Republicans give to root out fraud and corruption is just that- lip service. The ‘swamp’ is afraid an audit might uncover something
they don’t want uncovered. Cheating at
the ballot box has been going on for 150 years, but the cavalier, indifferent,
dismissive way Congress has avoided investigating it may have come home to
roost. Until 2020, the average American
wasn’t paying much attention, but a recent poll showed 40% of Americans believe
the 2020 election was stolen and it is not just those wearing tin foil hats. Congress may be forced to actually do
something this time if those Americans keep paying attention.
Four, some
elected officials are clearly using this as a political opportunity to appeal
to the GOP base. Senators Cruz and
Hawley are ambitious grandstanders and are likely 2024 Republican presidential candidates. By their own admission they have little
chance of getting the Commission appointed.
Contesting the seating of the Electors- even if it is long shot- boosts
their stock with the hard-core rank and file GOP activists and kickstarts their
2024 campaign. Sometimes the
grandstander gets into the game.
In their
press release, the eleven Senators said: "These are matters worthy of the Congress, and entrusted to
us to defend. We do not take this action lightly. We are acting not to thwart
the democratic process, but rather to protect it. And every one of us should
act together to ensure that the election was lawfully conducted under the
Constitution and to do everything we can to restore faith in our
Democracy."
The American people need to keep the
pressure on their federal representatives to take on (1) Ballot box integrity and
(2) Introduction of a Constitutional amendment standardizing the election
procedure in electing the president and vice president in all states. Those are ‘matters worthy of Congress.’
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