Today, January 6, is the date set for Congress to count and confirm Electoral College votes, and State Representative Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) along with 22 other Tennessee state legislators have formally requested in a December 30, 2020 letter to Tennessee’s U.S. Senators and Congressmen that they object to votes from Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin due to claims of election fraud.
The following is the press release from Griffey:
“There is a law from the 1880s known as the Electoral Count Act, which was written to help guide Congress if there is a dispute in a state about which candidate won. It allows members of Congress to challenge a state’s results and make the whole Congress vote on whether to accept the results, and that is exactly what I and a number of my colleagues in the TN legislature are asking our federal counterparts to do” explained Griffey. “I have always been a Trump supporter since I began to work on his Presidential campaign in July 2015, and always will remain a Trump supporter and I believe that, absent widespread fraud, President Trump would have won in November by a landslide,” Griffey continued.
“In his letter to Senators Blackburn and Hagerty as well as Congressmen Mark Green, David Kustoff, Scott DesJarlais, Diana Harshbarger , Tim Burchett, Chuck Fleishman and John Rose, Griffey states: “We write this letter to voice our strong support for Rep. Brooks’ call for the investigations into the widespread election irregularities, and to commend Rep. DesJarlais for voicing his support for Rep. Brooks on his initial letter. We also fully support the efforts of Congressman Louie Gohmert to establish the Constitutional duty of the Vice President of the United States, acting as President of the Senate, to accept only legitimate electors selected in accordance with and consistent with Article 1, Section 4; Article 2, Section 1, Clause 2 and the Twelfth Amendment to the US Constitution. Fair elections, free from foreign and outside interference, and fraudulent actions by State officials in violation of state law are pivotal to the survival of our republic, which exists based on the consent of the governed. If our elections cannot be trusted, the republic will no longer enjoy the consent of the governed.”
“Griffey continues in his letter to enumerate what he considers fraud or irregularities necessitating a Congressional challenge, giving the following examples:
· “Ballots were accepted without postmarks, or with backdated postmarks, in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin;
· “The U.S.P.S. was alleged to have backdated as many as 100,000 ballots in Wisconsin;
· “In Wisconsin and Michigan, poll workers were observed running ballots through tabulation machines as many as eight or nine times;
· “The alleged Biden victory margin in Nevada is 33,596 votes yet the number of ballots in question is more than three times that;
· “In Nevada, progressive socialist Democrats appear to have targeted Native Americans facing severe economic conditions and shamelessly enticed this vulnerable group to trade their votes for Visa gift cards and jewelry;
· “In Arizona, there are 75,000 lost or destroyed absentee ballots which were improperly tabulated;
· “More than 70,000 allegedly ineligible voters in Georgia cast ballots there; and
· “Approximately 15,000 mail-in or absentee ballots were cast in Nevada by voters who were known to have voted in other states.
“Griffey concludes his letter, stating that: “Our nation’s judiciary has sadly shown cowardice and refused to listen to the many claims of impropriety, and, as such, has not availed itself of the opportunity to judge the evidence of the numerous such cases on their merits. Given this, it is up to Congress to offer a venue in which a proper, thorough hearing can take place. Accordingly, we the undersigned hereby call on the Tennessee federal delegation to stand with Mo Brooks, Congressman Louie Gohmert, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri and President Donald Trump as they fight to defend our republic with a full Congressional investigation and vote on electors presented before the Joint Session on January 6, 2021. Importantly, this request is not merely an election challenge for President Donald Trump. Indeed, as (3 U.S.C. 15) states, it is Congress’s job to either accept or reject the votes presented to it by the electors which comprise the electoral college. . . . What limits on governmental power truly exist if governments may exceed those limits placed by our Constitution with impunity? It is with these laws and their continuation in mind that we, the undersigned, as you on January 6th to vocally support the rule of law, transparent government by joining Rep. Brooks in objecting to the contested electors from those states where Republicans have offered opposing slates of electors. Tennessee, your nation, and your President deserve to have the evidence of widespread fraud and irregularities heard on January 6th.”
“The other legislators who joined Griffey in his letter are Representatives Clay Doggett, Pat Marsh, Bud Hulsey, Kent Calfee, Terri Lynn Weaver, Jerry Sexton, Dennis Powers, Dan Howell, Esther Helton, Glen Casada, Tim Rudd, John Crawford, Justin Lafferty, Rick Eldridge, John Ragan, Mary Littleton and Mark Hall and Senators Janice Bowling, Mark Pody, Paul Bailey, Joey Hensley and Frank Niceley.
“On January 2, 2021, following this letter, both TN Senator Marsha Blackburn and TN Senator Bill Hagerty publicly announced that they will vote to oppose the electoral college results. TN Congressmen Mark Green and Scott DesJarlais have both also stated they will be objecting to the electoral college votes.”