(Official White House photo by Tia Dufour)
A lawmaker in a second state – Arizona – has now announced plans to reclaim control over the appointment of Electoral College electors – and for whom they cast their votes later this month.
The commitment was made by Arizona Rep. Mark Finchem during a hearing on vote fraud that was held on Monday.
The National File reports he said, "We are clawing our Electoral College votes back, we will not release them. That's what I'm calling our colleagues in both the House and the Senate to do. Exercise our plenary authority under the U.S. Constitution."
That founding document actually assigns to state legislators the authority to determine the procedures for casting state Electoral College votes, the body that meets in December to actually elect a president.
Most states have set up procedures to simply assign those electors based on the outcome of the popular vote, but that is not required.
Several constitutional experts have pointed out that state lawmakers have great latitude in determining their electors, and for whom they vote, if they have evidence of vote fraud or other misbehavior.
“Rep. Finchem, issued a call to withhold the state’s Electoral College votes, as he believes there is enough significant evidence of fraud to invalidate the state’s votes” #ArizonaHearing #StopTheSteaI2020 @MarkFinchem @NationalFile @ali @michellemalkin https://t.co/qqLPFq4UFM
— Paul Gosar (@DrPaulGosar) November 30, 2020
It was only days earlier that a Pennsylvania state legislator said he and his colleagues plan to assert their constitutional authority to name the electors to the Electoral College.
Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano Mastriano, a retired U.S. Army colonel, said in an interview with Steve Bannon's "War Room" that members of the Pennsylvania House and Senate are working on a joint resolution to "grab back" their constitutional authority from the secretary of state that was ceded in 1938, the Gateway Pundit reported.
Mastriano said the resolution was in the works to regain the power for the lawmakers to appoint the electors.
Momentum for the resolution came from the evidence presented at a hearing in Gettysburg, he said.
The interview:
Mastriano said that all of the witnesses of vote fraud in the 2020 election should be allowed to come forward.
"The media should have done this if they cared about truth," he said.
He said the evidence is "compelling."
Two of the four Republican leaders of the House and Senate already support resolution, as do more than half of GOP legislators, he said.
"We’re gonna do a resolution between the House and Senate, hopefully today. I’ve spent two hours online trying to coordinate this with my colleagues," he said. "And there’s a lot of good people working this here. Saying, that the resolution saying we’re going to take our power back. We’re gonna seat the electors. Now obviously we’re gonna need the support of the leadership of the House and Senate, we’re getting there on that."
Mastriano said the 2020 election was rife with "shenanigans and fraud" so lawmakers "can’t stand aside and just watch this unfold around us."
"You know, it’s not about disenfranchising anybody, it’s making sure that every legal vote counted," he said. "And if there’s extensive shenanigans out there it’s up to the general assembly to step in. So we have a fight on our hands and we’re gonna fight. We’re gonna take the fight all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to."
Finchem also said, "There is a legal brief out there that says we are not tethered to state statute. When it comes to this one question, a simply majority can call the House and Senate back, and in a day pass a resolution, and cause those electors to basically be held. And it is binding. I'll see you all in court."
The media has credited to Joe Biden enough Electoral College votes to be president. But that's not official until the Electoral College votes. And if enough states withhold their votes, it could be that neither candidate would gain the required 270 to be elected president.
In that case, the Constitution provides that the U.S. House elects a president, with each state getting one vote, in a House that has a majority of the delegations controlled by Republicans.
Alongside Finchem was U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., who was in attendance in a show of solidarity with supporters of President Donald Trump.
It probably would take Arizona, Pennsylvania and one other state to withhold Electoral College votes for the presidential race to be turned over to the U.S. House.
WND reported two constitutional-law experts, William J. Olson and Patrick M. McSweeney, have explained that Republican-controlled state legislatures that the authority to appoint slates of Republican electors to the Electoral College if the voters chose the Democratic candidate.
That could happen if there is evidence of fraud and other remedies are not available.
"During the 2020 presidential election, many of the so-called swing states, including Arizona, saw unprecedented – and unlawful – erosions of procedural safeguards as well as administration irregularities on Election Day," the constitutional experts have explained. "People deserve an honest accounting of who won. … With respect to identifying and remediating fraudulent or mistaken results, it is now or never, whatever can be done must be done.
"Legislators who want to carefully examine the election process, and take action if significant election fraud is found, would be simply giving effect to the vote of the people, not denying it."
Arizona and Pennsylvania are two of at least half a dozen states where there have been credible complaints of vote fraud filed.
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