Sen. Ted Cruz leads group to oppose election results

Several Republican senators, led by Sen. Ted Cruz, plan to oppose the Electoral College results unless a commission is appointed to conduct a 10-day audit of the election results.

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Congress is expected to approve the count, typically a formality, on Wednesday. President-elect Joe Biden won the 2020 election in November.

“We intend to vote on Jan. 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not ‘regularly given’ and ‘lawfully certified’ (the statutory requisite), unless and until that emergency 10-day audit is completed,” the group said in a statement on Saturday, CBS News reported.

Other senators that are part of the group include Ron Johnson, James Lankford, Steve Daines, John Kennedy, Marsha Blackburn and Mike Braun, CNN reported. Also senators-elect Cynthia Lummis, Roger Marshall, Bill Hagerty and Tommy Tuberville have pledged support. Only Johnson, of Wisconsin, represents a state that Biden won, CBS News reported.

There has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Dozens of lawsuits by President Donald Trump’s campaign challenging the results have been thrown out of courts across the country.

The group’s work is separate from an effort led by Sen. Josh Hawley, who has said he plans to challenge the certification.

Cruz’s group cited the 1876 election between Samuel Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes, where Congress established a 10-day audit in 1877 after election results were disputed in multiple states.

Cruz’s group does not expect to overturn the election results. They said they are working to restore faith in the democratic process.

“A fair and credible audit-conducted expeditiously and completed well before January 20-would dramatically improve Americans’ faith in our electoral process and would significantly enhance the legitimacy of whoever becomes our next President. We owe that to the people,” the statement said. “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.”

Cox Media Group