The Epoch Times
by Zachary Stieber
January 7, 2021
Excerpt:
Vice President Mike Pence did not acknowledge how seven states sent two certificates to Washington, one for President Donald Trump and one for President-elect Joe Biden, during the joint session of Congress.
Pence only read off one certificate, for Biden, for the seven states in question: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Before reading each state’s certificate, Pence asked the joint session if there were objections. He would later add: “This certificate from [a state], the parliamentarians advise me, is the only certificate of vote from that state that purports to be a return from the state and that has annexed to it a certificate from the authority of the state purporting to appoint and ascertain electors.”
The Electoral College Act, passed some 150 years ago, outlines a scenario where a state sends “more than one return or paper purporting to be a return.” It calls on the vice president in his or her role as president of the Senate to open “all the certificates and papers purporting to be certificates of the electoral votes” during the joint session to count electoral votes.
What Pence said as he called out states differed from what vice presidents said in previous sessions, Politico noted.
Under the Electoral College system, voters are actually choosing electors when they vote for a presidential candidate. The party electors then, in almost all cases, cast a ballot the following month for the party’s candidate. The winner of the popular vote in a state is certified as the winner, and that certificate is counted in the congressional joint session.
Republican electors in those states last month cast a ballot for Trump, planning to send it to Washington. Democratic electors cast a ballot for Biden. The situation is known as dueling electors.
In past joint sessions, vice presidents have read so-called alternative electors. For instance, Vice President Richard Nixon in 1961. Nixon was initially declared the winner of Hawaii, but candidate John F. Kennedy was later certified as the state’s winner, just two days before the joint session that year. Congress received certificates from Republican electors, Democratic electors, and a package from the Archivist of the United States.
“Therefore, we write to ask you to comply with our reasonable request to afford our nation more time to properly review the 2020 election by postponing the January 6th opening and counting of the electoral votes for at least 10 days, affording our respective bodies to meet, investigate, and as a body vote on certification or decertification of the election. This action can be completed prior to the inauguration date, as required by the Constitution,” the lawmakers said.
“The Chair has received three certificates from persons claiming to be the duly appointed electors from the State of Hawaii. The Chair will hand these certificates one at a time to the tellers who will read the certificates and the attached papers in full. After the first certificate has been read the Chair will then hand the second certificate to the tellers, and then the third,” Nixon said.
Nixon then suggested the electors named by Hawaii’s governor, or the electors for Kennedy, be considered the lawful objectors. No one objected, so the session moved forward.
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Read entire article at: https://www.theepochtimes.com/pence-congress-ignored-alternative-slates-of-electors-during-joint-session_3647546.html