Republican Senator, Josh Hawley of Missouri, on Wednesday, announced that he will object when Congress counts the Electoral College votes next week.
The move will represent a major complication to the U.S election certification process.
Hawley claimed precedence when citing past Democratic objections during the counting of Electoral College votes.
He posited that, since Democrats were allowed do so then, there was nothing stopping them from repeating the feat, for the sake of the “integrity of this election”.
Should Missouri go ahead with the objection, lawmakers, in both the House of Representatives and Senate, will have to vote on whether to accept the results of President-elect Joe Biden’s win.
For the electoral college votes to be counted, a member of the House of Representatives and the senate are expected to launch an objection on January 6, 2021, when Congress counts the Electoral College votes.
The objection will, however, not alter the election result.
It will only delay the affirmation of Biden’s victory over US President Trump in the November election.
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Majority Leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell has secretly advised Republican senators not to join the plans of some House members in objecting.
The House of Representatives is dominated by democrats while the Senate is dominated by Republicans.
In the event one lawmaker in both the House and Senate raise an objection during the joint session of Congress, the two chambers will split to and debate the matter for about two hours.
After the two hour debate, both will vote on whether to sustain the objection raised.
Senator Hawley pointed out states, like Pennsylvania, who had issues surrounding their mail-in voting rules which were litigated before the election.
It will be recalled that the chambers last voted on an objection in 2005.
Then, ex Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat from California, teamed up with ex Representative, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a Democrat from Ohio, to object former President, George Bush’s Ohio victory.