A joint session of Congress that convenes Wednesday to certify Joe Biden’s presidential victory could drag on for days thanks to rules permitting hours of deliberation for any objections to state results.
Republicans in the House and Senate plan to contest the results provided by six battleground states, beginning with Arizona, after the House and Senate gather for a joint session at 1 p.m. on Wednesday.
None of the protests has a chance of succeeding. An overwhelming majority in both chambers will block any effort to change the results certifying Biden as the winner in the half-dozen states some Republicans are questioning.
The states are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. President Trump has contested Biden’s win in each of those states.
Under the rules governing the joint session, over which Vice President Mike Pence will preside, the process allows up to two hours of debate, followed by votes, for any challenge. The process overall could take up to four hours for each state if Republicans carry through with every promised objection, a top Democratic aide said Tuesday.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said Democrats are prepared to respond to the GOP challenges.
“We think there are probably six states that would be subject to the actions that have been proposed by some members,” Hoyer said Tuesday. “We will have members from those states responding. On behalf of their states and the integrity of their voting process.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, and Rep. Andy Biggs, an Arizona Republican, are expected to kick off the objections by contesting the election results in Arizona, where state electors certified Biden the winner over Trump.
The election was very close. Biden prevailed by fewer than 11,000 votes. Trump and some Republicans believe election fraud and other irregularities may have cost him the state, although GOP-led lawsuits challenging the results have all failed.
Once Cruz and Biggs announce they are contesting Arizona’s decision, the joint session will dissolve and both chambers will debate and vote on the objection, which is all but guaranteed to fail. Debate can take up to two hours, but the time consumed for each state objection could be double.
While Democratic aides did not say specifically why it could take as long as four hours, it will take time for the two chambers to reassemble and begin the debate, and voting during the pandemic can take 40 minutes or longer.
After lawmakers debate and conclude voting on Arizona, the joint session will reconvene and move on to the next states.
The process will repeat for each contested state until each challenge is rejected. At that point, Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be declared the winners.
Congress is unlikely to remain in session all night, Hoyer said this week, which means the process could take days.
An extended certification process is likely to increase tension within the GOP over the challenge to Biden’s victory.
Several Senate Republicans, including staunch Trump allies, this week released statements opposing the challenge, arguing Congress does not have the authority to overturn the election certified by the states, which met on Dec. 14 to declare Biden the winner.
Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican, is the latest in Congress to pass an election security and voter protection package, acknowledging that voter irregularity concerns are valid.
“We must work to end these errors,” Scott said. “Be they intentional, negligent, or otherwise. Simply put, there is no acceptable error rate when it comes to something as foundational and sacred as our vote. We must be vigilant in ensuring every lawfully cast vote is counted and no unlawfully cast vote is counted.”
Cruz said his plan to challenge the result stems from a desire not to set aside the election results but to create an electoral commission to examine voter fraud. He points out that Democrats contested the election of Republicans in 2001, 2005, and 2016.
“I think Congress has an obligation to act to defend the integrity of our elections,” Cruz told the Mark Levin radio show.
