Rep. Rouzer among those to object Electoral College votes on Jan. 6

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY/AP) — Wednesday’s congressional joint session to count electoral votes has taken on added importance this year as congressional Republicans allied with President Donald Trump are pledging to try and undo Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.

The Associated Press reports the Republicans — a dozen senators and many more House members — are citing Trump’s repeated, baseless charges of widespread fraud. They say they will officially object to the results, forcing votes in the Republican-run Senate and the Democratic-controlled House that will almost certainly fail.

Seventh District Congressman David Rouzer is among others North Carolina Republican representatives like Ted Budd, Madison Cawthorn, and Richard Hudson.

“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 wrote in a statement on Monday. “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.”

North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Goodwin released the following statement in response to their planned protest of the results:

“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.”

The congressional meeting on Wednesday is the final step in reaffirming Biden’s win, after the Electoral College officially elected him in December.