Three House Republicans could be hit with an ethics complaint after trying to commit voter fraud during an overnight session on Wednesday night.
According to Punchbowl News’ John Bresnahn, during a vote for HR 1280: The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021, Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) cast a vote for the bill. His Republican colleagues freaked out, saying that it needed to be changed. Three of them protested, attempting to change the vote in with the Tally Clerk.
As Bresnahn notes, members can change their vote at any time after inserting a card into the voting stations. But if they want to change the vote in the last five minutes of the count, they have to go to the Tally Clerk and take a “red card,” sign it, and hand it to the Clerk.
At no point did Gooden use the red card option, but three other Republicans attempted to, signing Gooden’s name to it.
According to Bresnahn, “The cards were rejected by House clerks. A possible ethics violation by [Reps.]Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Randy Weber (R-TX) and Kelly Armstrong (R-ND).”
Reporter Jamie Dupree went back to CSPAN to look at the tape seeing a man in a blue suit racing down the center aisle of Congress.
“That person keeps running past the dais, but reaches out with his right hand and leaves a Red voting card for the clerk,” said Dupree. “That person continues running past the dais – a very unusual way to vote – and heads toward the Speaker’s Lobby door upper left in the photo. The voting clerk picks up the Red card – you can clearly see it in his hand – as the person who left it exits the chamber upper left.”
“After conferring with others on the dais, the vote is not counted (Red card still visible in the clerk’s hand, and one floor staffer goes out in the Speaker’s Lobby to look for the person who dropped off the card,” said Dupree. “Why is this of note? Lawmakers cannot cast a vote in the House for another member like that. It would be the House version of vote fraud.”
You can see below:
That person keeps running past the dais, but reaches out with his right hand and leaves a Red voting card for the clerk (Red=No). 3/ pic.twitter.com/M0oa41Uhaa
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) March 4, 2021
The voting clerk picks up the Red card – you can clearly see it in his hand – as the person who left it exits the chamber upper left. 5/ pic.twitter.com/BBVHTHPjFq
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) March 4, 2021
