Page:Congressional Record 167(4).pdf/3

January 6, 2021 There was no objection.

The VICE PRESIDENT. Hearing none, this certificate from Alaska, the Parliamentarian has advised me, is the only certificate of vote from that State that purports to be a return from the State and that has annexed to it a certificate from an authority of the State purporting to appoint and ascertain electors.

Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. President, the certificate of the electoral vote of the State of Alaska seems to be regular in form and authentic, and it appears therefrom that Donald J. Trump of the State of Florida received 3 votes for President and of the State of Indiana received 3 votes for Vice President.

The VICE PRESIDENT. Are there any objections to counting the certificate of vote of the State of Alaska that the teller has verified appears to be regular in form and authentic?

There was no objection.

The VICE PRESIDENT. Hearing none, this certificate from Arizona, the Parliamentarian has advised me, is the only certificate of vote that the State purports to be a return from the State and that has annexed to it a certificate from an authority of that State purporting to appoint or ascertain electors.

Senator KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, the certificate of the electoral vote of the State of Arizona seems to be regular in form and authentic, and it appears therefrom that Joseph R. Biden, Jr., of the State of Delaware received 11 votes for President and of the State of California received 11 votes for Vice President.

The VICE PRESIDENT. Are there any objections to counting the certificate of vote of the State of Arizona that the teller has verified appears to be regular in form and authentic?

Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Vice President, I, from Arizona, rise for myself and 60 of my colleagues to object to the counting of the electoral ballots from Arizona.

The VICE PRESIDENT. Is the objection in writing and signed by a Senator?

Mr. GOSAR. Yes, it is.

Senator CRUZ. It is.

The VICE PRESIDENT. An objection presented in writing and signed by both a Representative and a Senator complies with the law, chapter 1 of title 3, United States Code.

The Clerk will report the objection.

The Clerk read the objection as follows:

The VICE PRESIDENT. Are there further objections to the certificate from the State of Arizona?

There was no objection. The VICE PRESIDENT. The two Houses will withdraw from joint session. Each House will deliberate separately on the pending objection and report its decision back to the joint session. The Senate will now retire to its Chamber.

The Senate retired to its Chamber.

The SPEAKER. The Chair will remind Members of the need to adhere to the decorum requirements of the Chamber as laid out in the Speaker’s announced policies of January 4, 2021, in accordance with the guidance of the Attending Physician.

Members are advised to remain in the Chamber only if they are participating in debate and must wear a mask at all times, even when under recognition for debate.

Members must also practice proper social distancing while present in the Chamber.

Please, in the interests of your own health and as an example to the American people, abide by the numbers, now up to 25 on each side of the aisle, to participate in this stage of the debate.

Pursuant to Senate Concurrent Resolution 1 and 3 U.S.C. 17 governing the procedure for counting the electoral votes, when the two Houses withdraw from the joint session to count the electoral vote for separate consideration of objection, a Representative may speak to the objection for 5 minutes, and not more than once. Debate shall not exceed 2 hours, after which the Chair will put the question, Shall the objection be agreed to?

The Clerk will report the objection made in the joint session.

The Clerk read the objection as follows:

The SPEAKER. The Chair will endeavor to alternate recognition between Members speaking in support of the objection and Members speaking in opposition to the objection.

The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. ) for 5 minutes. Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to object to a number of States that did not follow the constitutional requirement for selecting electors.

Madam Speaker, this is something that is clear that our Founding Fathers debated about as a fundamental decision of how we choose our President. There was a lot of back and forth, if anyone reads the founding documents of our country, about the different versions they went through to ultimately come up with a process where each State has elections; each State has a process for selecting their electors and sending them to Washington.

Madam Speaker, in a number of those States, that constitutional process was not followed, and that is why we are here to object.

If you look at what the requirement says, nowhere in Article II, Section 1