Andrew McCarthy on the Cruz/Hawley effort
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Money quote:
Trump and his loyalists are “disputing” those five states only in the sense of not being able to come to terms with having lost them. That does not make them disputed in a legally cognizable sense. The claim of Hawley, Cruz, and their colleagues that their Electoral Commission is an effort to protect elections, not undermine them, is specious. If, as they say, a high percentage of Trump supporters suspect fraud, it is because the president incessantly posits fraud claims publicly while unable to prove them legally, and because prominent Republicans remain mum rather than challenging him.
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Sen. Cotton on the Cruz/Hawley effort:
https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-statement-on-joint-session-of-congress-
... the Founders entrusted our elections chiefly to the states—not Congress. They entrusted the election of our president to the people, acting through the Electoral College—not Congress. And they entrusted the adjudication of election disputes to the courts—not Congress. Under the Constitution and federal law, Congress’s power is limited to counting electoral votes submitted by the states.
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If Congress purported to overturn the results of the Electoral College, it would not only exceed that power, but also establish unwise precedents. First, Congress would take away the power to choose the president from the people, which would essentially end presidential elections and place that power in the hands of whichever party controls Congress. Second, Congress would imperil the Electoral College, which gives small states like Arkansas a voice in presidential elections. Democrats could achieve their longstanding goal of eliminating the Electoral College in effect by refusing to count electoral votes in the future for a Republican president-elect. Third, Congress would take another big step toward federalizing election law, another longstanding Democratic priority that Republicans have consistently opposed.
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