President Donald Trump’s allies are trying every trick in their bag in an effort to upend the 2020 election. The latest attempt came from Trump’s favorite pollster, Rasmussen, which invoked Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to suggest that Vice President Pence has the sole power to decide the 2020 election results.
The Republican-leaning pollster tweeted that “Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything. – Stalin,” before going on to outline a scenario in which Pence refuses to certify the actual electoral college vote and declare Trump the winner
Some of the most ardent supporters of Donald Trump have made similar arguments that Pence, as president of the Senate, has the power to reject Electoral College results.
In fact, Texas Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert has filed a lawsuit against Mike Pence in his official capacity as vice president demanding he overturns President-elect Joe Biden’s election win and declares Donald Trump the winner instead, claiming he has the power to do so.
However, these assertions are based on outright falsehoods. The election results in every U.S. state have already been certified and the Electoral College votes for Biden have already been cast.
As noted by The Washington Post, the U.S. code simply authorizes the vice president to call on states to submit their electoral votes if they do not do so by the fourth Wednesday in December.
Read the tweets from Rasmussen below.
At that moment, the Presidency will be in his hands.
And there is nothing stopping Pence, under the (plenary and unappealable) authority vested in him as President of the Senate, from declining to open and count the certificates from the six disputed states.
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— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) December 27, 2020
Per the 12th Amendment: "[T]he votes shall then be counted[.] … The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President[.]"
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— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) December 27, 2020
