Republicans To Try To Prevent Certification of Biden's Victory

Congress will meet on Wednesday to confirm the results of the 2020 Presidential elections. Outgoing President Donald Trump's allies, however, plan to boycott Joe Biden's certification as the next U.S. president.

RELATED:

Proud Boys Leader Arrested in Washington

While there is no chance that Congress will change the election's outcome, lawmakers are expected to debate for hours around the arguments of Trump and his supporters.

Both houses of Congress must meet in a joint session to open the electoral vote certificates for each state. This session should be a mere formality to validate the electoral results since the Electoral College already ratified Biden's victory with 306 votes, while Trump only achieved 232.

However, if a member of the Lower House and another of the Senate present an objection to the results in one state, both chambers would start a debate on the possibility of not counting the electoral votes in that territory.

So far, thirteen Republican senators and over 100 congressmen have said they will support objections to the results in various states, arguing they seek to "give a voice" to the US. citizens who believe the presidential elections were not fair.

Legislators are also asking Congress to create an electoral commission to carry out a ten-day emergency audit of the results in the disputed states.

The certificates of the electoral votes will be opened in alphabetical order to corroborate who exceeded the 270 electoral vote barrier.

Republican lawmakers' objections could be over the six territories where Trump has questioned Biden's victory, namely Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

For each state that a congressman and senator object to, the joint session will go into recess and debates will open in each of the two houses. Then the plenary sessions of both chambers will meet to vote on the possibility of rejecting the results. If Republican lawmakers question the results in those six states, the session could last 24 hours or more.

This type of political maneuvering has a precedent in American history. In 1873, Congress decided not to count Arkansas and Louisiana votes in the reelection of President Ulysses Grant (1869-1877), who would have won those elections even without those votes.

Trump's allies also want a repeat of what happened in 1877 when Congress created an electoral commission to resolve the disputed elections between Democrat Samuel Tilden and Republican Rutherford Hayes.