Cnn writes: Already at least one Republican lawmaker, Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, has said he’ll challenge the electoral vote that day. If just one U.S. senator joins him, the Electoral Count Act of 1877 will force every member of Congress to vote on whether to accept the results in the states where Republican baselessly decry voter fraud.
Google tells me
There are a total of 535 Members of Congress. 100 serve in the U.S. Senate and 435 serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. How long do members of Congress' terms last? Members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms and are considered for reelection every even year.
Yahoo tells me (and I adjust)
Before the 2020 elections, Republicans held 53 Senate seats, Democrats held 45 seats, and independents caucusing with the Democratic Party held two seats -- for Dem total of 47.
House of representatives: Democratic (233) Minority (196) Republican (196) Other (1) Libertarian (1) Vacant (5) Vacant (5)
233+45(or more)= 275 or more ... DEM
196+53 (or <)= 249 ... or less REP
but what if they vote by state delegation?
I turn to NY mag Intelligencer for some answer there...
To make a very long and tedious story short, the last step in any presidential election is the certification of electoral votes by the newly elected Congress in early January. This is normally a rubber-stamp of the results everyone knows on or shortly after Election Night. But the above-mentioned Electoral Count Act provides a way to “pause” the certification if one House and one Senate member protest the award of electors in one or more states. In that event, the two chambers separate and hold a two-hour debate before voting on the electoral votes for disputed states. Only if both Houses disapprove the initial results are they changed.
and
So far Brooks hasn’t publicly identified a senator who is willing to help him trigger this last resort, but there are plenty of likely suspects, from would-be presidential candidates such as Ted Cruz or Josh Hawley, to hardcore conservatives such as Mike Lee and Rand Paul, or even the two Georgia senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who desperately need every MAGA voter for their January 5 runoffs (the day before the vote in Congress would occur). The ostensible strategy for the caper isn’t entirely clear: Normally you’d challenge electors in states with multiple, disputed slates that have been sent to Congress (that’s what led to the adoption of the Electoral Count Act, which followed the disputed 1876 presidential election). With all 50 states having already certified electors and the “safe harbor deadline” for replacing them in Congress having already passed, that doesn’t seem to be an option.
(At this writing, Trump is still working to get Wis Supreme Court to unseat Dem slate - Jack)
You have to assume the idea is simply to vote down the electors in enough states to deny Biden his majority, throwing the election into the House, where Republicans will hold a majority (26, with the possibility of Iowa making 27 once an election dispute there is settled) of state delegations under the constitutional provisions giving each state one vote in a presidential contest.
That won’t happen, if only because the Democratic-controlled House isn’t going to support Brooks’s effort to overturn the election. [Unclear} But it would force each and every Republican member of Congress to go on record supporting or opposing Trump’s coup, in the ultimate loyalty test just before the 45th president leaves office, shrieking and whining the whole way. They all know Trump’s refusal to accept defeat is childish and dangerous, but will they have the courage to deny him one final gesture of fealty?
but the LA Times is helpful to his worried Dem.
If at least one member [WHICH WILL BE MO BROOKS and a PLAYER TO BE NAMED LATER] of each house objects in writing to some electoral votes, the House and Senate meet separately to debate the issue. Both houses must vote to sustain the objection for it to matter, and the Democratic-led House is unlikely to go along with any objections to votes for Biden. Otherwise, the votes get counted as intended by the states.
And then there’s one more step: inauguration. What could possibly go wrong?
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