SEATTLE (AP) - Republican Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Spokane said Tuesday she will object to the Electoral College vote count, challenging President-elect Joe Biden’s win in certain states.
“With historic turnout, razor-thin margins, and dramatic changes to voting processes in the midst of a global pandemic, people understandably have many questions about the integrity of the 2020 presidential election,” she said in a statement.
She said the vote is not about overturning an election. “It is about examining allegations of potential fraud, certifying that states are protecting election integrity, and ensuring people’s voices are heard,” her statement said.
The House and the Senate will convene a joint session Wednesday to count the electoral votes cast in November’s election and affirm Biden’s win. Trump has repeatedly said there was widespread fraud, but his claims have been rejected by Republican and Democratic election officials in multiple states and by judges, including at the Supreme Court, further cementing Biden’s victory.
U.S. Republican Reps. Dan Newhouse, of Sunnyside, and Jaime Herrera Beutler, of Vancouver, said in a letter to House leaders Tuesday they will not join McMorris Rodgers and other Republicans in objecting.
“Congress has one job here: to count electoral votes that have in fact been cast by any state,” the letter also signed by 11 other Republicans reads. “To take action otherwise – that is, to unconstitutionally insert Congress into the center of the presidential election process – would amount to stealing power from the people and the states.”
McMorris Rodgers previously congratulated Biden on his victory.
Gov. Jay Inslee said on Twitter Tuesday evening that no evidence exists to justify an objection to the electoral count and that McMorris Rodgers knows that. “This mark of dishonor will last through the ages,” Inslee said.
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