United States Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) complained at a Senate Rules Committee hearing Wednesday that Congress should have created a special commission to determine the outcome of the 2020 election.
His remarks, which repeated former President Donald Trump’s false narrative that Joe Biden and the Democrats stole the presidency, came during a debate over how to reform the Electoral Count Act of 1887.
I believe the best approach for the 2020 elections would be for the Congress to follow the 1876 model and appoint an Election Commission. A large percentage of Americans still have deep doubts about the truth. election,” Cruz said. “I think both parties should have done a serious and objective examination of the factual merits of those claims. Congress has not stepped away from that role, and one of the consequences is that we now remain deeply divided. in this country.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), who chairs the Rules Committee, was not amused.
“Well, thank you, Senator Cruz,” she replied. “I’m not a big fan of the 1876 election. I couldn’t have voted, for one thing.”
Cruz, one of 16 Republicans who rejected Biden’s victory, interjected, “Of course, you weren’t alive then.”
“That’s true, but I’m trying to put it in, you know…” Klobuchar said.
In 1920, women got the right to vote.
The 1876 presidential election was one of the closest in United States history. Republican Governor of Ohio, Rutherford B. Hayes ran against New York Governor Samuel Tilden, a Democrat, and won the nomination. As a result of the contest, no one received a majority in the Electoral College.
“Three states are in doubt: Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, with 19 electoral votes among them. The status of one of the three electors in Oregon—already given to Tilden—was questioned by Hayes and most of his allies. New Hampshire Republican leader William E. Chandler said that if Hayes was given every vote in doubt, he Tilden was ready to concede when he observed that he would be defeated 185-184. Observers and advocates flocked to all three, hoping to influence the official canvass,” says Britannica.
According to the constitution, the contest went to the House of Representatives, where the representatives of each state would choose a candidate and then “send its electoral certificate to the President of the Senate in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives. , open all the certificates, and then the votes will be counted,” Britannica explains. “But it sheds no light on whether, in a contested election, a state may go behind the certificate and review the acts of its certifying officers or examine the election of electors.”
When the Congress decided to meet on 6 December 1876, rivalry broke out among the legislators and an Election Commission was formed on 29 January 1877. Congress was granted “the same powers, if any” in the matter. Its decisions are final unless rejected by both houses,” notes Britannica.
Things got messy in Florida — of all places — where Tilden was believed to have technically won. But its electors awarded Hayes amid partisan political pressure. He took office as the 19th President on March 2, 1877.
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