Republicans prepare for objections to Arizona’s Electoral College votes on Wednesday

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz plans to object to Arizona’s Electoral College results during the joint session of Congress on Wednesday, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN, which will force the first of multiple expected — and futile — votes in the House and the Senate to overturn the results of the election won by President-elect Joe Biden.

Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley has said he plans to object to the results in Pennsylvania. Republicans could also force debates and votes on other key states, with Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia signaling she intends to object to Biden’s win in her state.

The objections on Wednesday during the formal count of electoral votes from all 50 states and the District of Columbia will not change the results of the election. Every Democrat and some Republicans will reject the challenges in both chambers, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. More Senate Republicans announced Tuesday they would vote to certify the election results, breaking with their Republican colleagues, including Sens. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Tim Scott of South Carolina.

But the objections will extend the normally ceremonial process of counting Electoral College votes into Wednesday evening and possibly beyond. For each state where a House member and senator object, the two chambers will separately recess and debate the matter for up to two hours, followed by a vote on whether to accept or reject the objection.

The exact number of objections that will be raised is still unclear. Cruz and a group of GOP senators held a conference call Monday night with several House members to map out a strategy, though no final decisions were made, according to a source involved in the call. And House Republicans held a lengthy internal debate Tuesday about the merits of trying to overturn the election results.

The states’ Electoral College votes are counted in alphabetical order, so Cruz’s objection to Arizona is likely to be the first debated.

Cruz and nearly a dozen Senate Republicans said this past weekend they planned to object to the Electoral College results unless a commission was appointed to investigate voter fraud. A person familiar with Cruz’s plans argued the objection was not as much about Cruz questioning the election results as it was a reaction to the fact that he has not received the commission to study election results that he and his group of 10 other senators requested.

The objections have sparked a public split in the Republican conference, with those siding with McConnell arguing the effort has no chance of succeeding and is dangerous for democracy. Some of Trump’s allies on the other side are vowing to primary those Republicans who vote against him on Wednesday.

Trump has focused on Wednesday’s congressional session to try to overturn the November election after courts across the country rejected his campaign’s lawsuits challenging the results, and state legislatures in battleground states declined to try to appoint electors that went against the will of the voters in their states.

The President has attacked Republicans who have said they will not object to the results, accusing them on Twitter of being part of a “surrender caucus.” Trump has also pushed Vice President Mike Pence, falsely claiming on Twitter Tuesday that Pence could “has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.”

There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, and there is no evidence that electors from the electoral college were fraudulently chosen, as all states have certified their elections. Pence’s role on Wednesday in certifying the results of the election is largely ceremonial.

There’s no indication Pence plans to do so. But even if the vice president tried to take an unprecedented and legally dubious action to reject the will of voters and select a different slate of electors, such a move would almost certainly be rejected by both chambers of Congress. The chambers could respond by voting to appeal the ruling of the chair, according to Alan Frumin, a former Senate parliamentarian.

In a sign that Pence is preparing for his role overseeing the quadrennial session to count the ballots, he was spotted in his office off the Senate floor Sunday meeting with aides and Elizabeth MacDonough, the current Senate parliamentarian.

House GOP debates objections internally

In the House, Republicans engaged in a debate for more than an hour Tuesday morning over whether to mount an objection on the House floor to overturn the election results, according to multiple members.

The top three leaders — Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise and Liz Cheney — stayed out of the debate and let the conference argue over their differences.

The debate was kicked off by Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy, who argued that the results should not be overturned and that doing so would exceed Congress’ authority. But Louisiana Republican Rep. Mike Johnson argued the opposite side.

“People felt for strong constitutional reasons on both sides of the issue,” said Rep. Tom Cole, a Republican from Oklahoma and top Republican on the Rules Committee. “The leaders really wanted to let the members talk. It was actually a therapeutic exercise for the conference.”

Cole added: “I think members are still struggling.”

Afterward, Scalise suggested to CNN he was sympathetic to the concerns of the objectors.

“We had a really good discussion about it earlier today,” Scalise said when asked if he was supportive. “Clearly members expressed views on both sides but there have been very valid questions raised for months now about states that went around their own constitutions and their legislatures. And the US Constitution makes it very clear it’s the legislatures who set the rules for choosing electors, and in a number of states that didn’t happen. And that’s been brought out. And I think there’s a lot of discussion.”

While Republicans have raised concerns about voting rules that were put in place in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in states like Pennsylvania, those issues were litigated before the election, and the courts have rejected efforts to disenfranchise voters after the election.

At the moment, the House GOP objectors only have commitments from senators to object to three states: Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

“We’re doing three but we are hoping for six,” said Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, who is leading the charge on the House. He added they are still having “lots of conversations with senators.”

On the Democratic side, lawmakers from the various states that could see objections huddled in their delegations to discuss how to rebut the GOP allegations, and they plan to speak in defense of their states’ elections when objections are mounted.

“Let me say our main message is that the Constitution is clear. The results of the election are clear. The conclusion of courts of the land is clear,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters Tuesday. “And I expect, without a doubt, that the report of the Electoral College and the 306 electoral votes that Mr. Biden got will be confirmed at the end of this process.”

This story has been updated with additional reporting.