By WECT Staff | January 4, 2021 at 1:21 PM EST – Updated January 4 at 4:22 PM
WASHINGTON (WECT) – Congressman David Rouzer (R-NC) on Monday announced that he will join a growing list of Republicans who say they plan to object to the Electoral College votes on Jan. 6.
“I will be among those objecting to the Electoral College votes of several states January 6th. When more than a third of the American public — including 17% of Democrats based on a recent Reuters poll — do not believe in the integrity of the election, truth and transparency deserve to be heard,” Rouzer stated in a brief email announcing his decision.
“When there are wide-spread and grave concerns, I do not believe our Founders intended Congress to be an automatic rubber stamp of approval of a state’s votes. Election integrity is a foundational matter that needs to be ensured,” he added.
In the post, Rouzer said, without evidence and without providing examples, there were “too many aspects of concern, too many irregularities and clear violations of the U.S. Constitution by several of the states in question” when it came to November’s general election, and claims that this is why so many “instinctively have little confidence that the presidential election was fair.”
The N.C. Democratic Party issued the following statement after Rouzer’s announcement:
“This is a coordinated, brazen attack on our democracy from North Carolina Republicans Ted Budd, Madison Cawthorn, Richard Hudson, and David Rouzer, with silent complicity from Senator Tillis, that only serves to undermine trust in our democratic institutions and strikes at the very heart of the foundations of our country. Not a single one of these spineless, weak Republicans can point to widespread fraud. Instead, they’re meekly going along with their tails between their legs because they’re terrified of crossing a lame-duck president so desperate to cling onto power after losing an election that he’ll attack and bully election officials from his own party, spout unfounded claims of fraud, and seek to steal a free and fair election. President-elect Joe Biden will take office this month because the American people chose him in the most secure election of our lifetimes; no anti-democratic stunts from these weak Republicans will change that.”
President Donald Trump, in an unprecedented effort to overturn last year’s presidential election, has enlisted support from a dozen Republican senators and up to 100 House Republicans to challenge the Electoral College vote when Congress convenes in a joint session this week to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s 306-232 win.
Despite Trump’s claims of voter fraud, state officials have insisted the elections ran smoothly and there was no evidence of fraud or other problems that would change the outcome. The states have certified their results as fair and valid.
Of the more than 50 lawsuits the president and his allies have filed challenging election results, nearly all have been dismissed or dropped. He’s also lost twice at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Copyright 2021 WECT. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
