Sen. Ted Cruz led an objection to counting Electoral College votes from the state of Arizona, the first formal objection to state results in a series of moves that will delay the certification of Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election over President Trump.
Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas, and Rep. Paul Gosar, the senior Republican representative from Arizona, signed the objection.
Gosar said that 60 of his colleagues also objected to the Electoral College votes.
Cruz, who is leading a group of more than a dozen senators in objecting to Electoral College results on Wednesday, is advocating for an “emergency 10-day audit” of election returns in disputed states.
Because of the objection from both a senator and a congressman, the usually mostly ceremonial joint session of Congress that convenes to count and accept Electoral College votes will be put on hold as the House and Senate separately debate the objection.
Due to the House having a Democratic majority, and several Republicans in both the House and Senate expressing their opposition to the objection, the move is likely to result in little more than a delay tactic.
Several Republican lawsuits following the election, such as one that claimed voters were given incorrect instructions from poll workers about whether voting machines properly counted their ballots, failed in court.
