INDIANAPOLIS — At least 13 GOP senators and more than 100 House Republicans plan to reject President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College win on Wednesday.
So, can they really prevent Biden from becoming president?
“In theory they could, but in practice it is extremely unlikely,” said Indiana University political science professor Elizabeth Bennion.
The ability to object comes from Electoral Count Act of 1887. It gives all members of Congress a way to object to electoral votes.
If at least one member from the House and at least one member from the Senate agree to an objection, it forces both chambers to debate the vote.
“You would need members of the House and Senate both to object to certifying a particular state’s electors and results and then you would need both chambers to vote by majority vote to accept that objection,” Bennion said.
She said that’s unlikely to happen because Democrats hold a majority in the House and not enough Republicans plan to object in the Senate.
“The founding fathers, in deciding to elect a president using an electoral college, specifically did that in part so that Congress would not make decisions about who would be President,” Bennion said. “They didn’t want the president beholden to Congress. And so this really is not in keeping with the constitution to suggest that Congress can object because they don’t like the way the results came out.”
Bennion said the only other way members could object would be to say there’s something irregular about the sealed certificates that hold the electoral totals from each state.
“But given those elections are run by the states and have been certified by the states and all legal challenges have failed due to lack of evidence, it really seems like we can expect these results to be certified,” she said.