In an odd lawsuit that parallels the surreal 2020 presidential election, Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert and a group of Republican Electors from Arizona have filed a lawsuit against Vice President Mike Pence. Their argument, in part, is that the Electoral Count Act is unconstitutional.
Plaintiffs in the all-Republican lawsuit include Gohmert and the entire slate of the Republican Electors for the presidential electors in Arizona, including Tyler Bowyer, Nancy Cottle, Jake Hoffman, Anthony Kern, James R. Lamon, Sam Moorhead, Robert Montgomery, Loraine Pellegrino, Gref Safsten, Kelli Ward and Michael Ward.
As the Vice President of the United States, Pence is appointed under the Electoral Count Act to count official electoral votes on January 6, 2021.
Though the clear and overwhelming Biden votes have been repeatedly confirmed as authentic for the presidential election in fifty-nine court cases, Gohmert and the Arizona Republican Electors beg to disagree.
The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas and requests injunctive relief and an “expedited” declaratory judgment. With only a week before the official electoral count on January 6, the complaint requires a quick decision.
The 1887 Electoral Count Act is an ambiguous law from an era when the US was divided politically after the Civil War ended in 1865. The nation was still reeling from the violent war that pitted brother against brother, resulting in 620,000 American deaths and the end of slavery.
In The Electoral Count Act, electors are required by law to be chosen for the Electoral College, the constitutional body that elects the president, within forty-one days from Election Day.
None of the many lawsuits by Trump was successful in invalidating President-elect Joe Biden's victory. Yet, Gohmert and the Arizona Republican Electors filed their complaint alleging the Electoral Count Act violates the constitution.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs highlight the alleged three major violations of the law.
They say in the complaint the Electoral Count Act instructs the Vice President to count electoral votes “for a State that has been appointed in violation of the Electors Clause.”
The complaint then links this requirement under the Act as a restriction of Pence’s “exclusive” authority, which they say is protected under the Twelfth Amendment.
The complaint further alleges the Electoral Count Act unlawfully supersedes the dispute resolution procedure in the Twelfth Amendment where “the House of Representatives has sole authority to choose the President."
The complaint states, in part, “On January 6, 2021, when Congress convenes to count the electoral votes for President and Vice-President, Plaintiff Representative Gohmert will object to the counting of the Arizona slate of electors voting for Biden and to the Biden slates from the remaining Contested States. Rep. Gohmert is entitled to have his objection determined under the Twelve Amendment, and not through the unconstitutional impositions of a prior Congress by 3 U.S.C. §§ 5 and 15.”
Now, the Eastern District of Texas Tyler Division must decide if, as the lawsuit alleges, “Sections 5 and 15 of the Electoral Count Act violate the Electors Clause and/or the Twelfth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution."
