Ted Cruz-Led Group of GOP Senators to Object Election Certification, Unless Audit Is Conducted

A group of 11 Republican senators and senators-elect led by Texas Senator Ted Cruz released a joint statement on Saturday, announcing that they plan to reject electors in states where voter fraud has been disputed—unless a 10-day audit of the election results is conducted.

The senators who were part of the joint statement besides Cruz are Ron Johnson (Wisconsin); James Lankford (Oklahoma); Steve Daines (Montana); John Kennedy (Louisiana); Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee); and Mike Braun (Indiana).

Senators-elect Tommy Tuberville (Alabama); Roger Marshall (Kansas); Bill Hagerty (Tennessee); and Cynthia Lummis (Wyoming) were also included in the statement.

The group called for an Electoral Commission similar to one created in 1877 to resolve the dispute concerning the presidential election the year before. That was comprised of five House members, five senators, and five Supreme Court justices.

"Congress should immediately appoint an Electoral Commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states. Once completed, individual states would evaluate the Commission's findings and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if needed," the statement said.

While the senators said that they planned to vote to reject voters from disputed states on Wednesday, they did not appear to specify which states they would reject. "We intend to vote on January 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not 'regularly given' and 'lawfully certified' (the statutory requisite), unless and until that 10-day audit is completed," the statement said.

The effort of the 11 senators appears separate from Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley's recent announcement that he would also object to election certification. In a statement on December 30, Hawley said that local election laws in Pennsylvania were violated and tech companies like Facebook and Twitter interfered with the election.

Part of his statement can be found below:

"I cannot vote to certify the electoral college results on January 6 without raising the fact that some states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state election laws. And I cannot vote to certify without pointing out the unprecedented effort of mega corporations, including Facebook and Twitter, to interfere in this election, in support of Joe Biden. At the very least, Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections. But Congress has so far failed to act."

In the group statement, the senators said that they anticipated Democrats and some Republicans in Congress to still vote to certify the results, but still said that an audit was necessary for Americans to have faith in the election process.

"A fair and credible audit-conducted expeditiously and completed well before January 20-would dramatically improve Americans' faith in our electoral process and would significantly enhance the legitimacy of whoever becomes our next President. We owe that to the People," they said.

The group's announcement Saturday comes as Georgia prepares for its crucial runoff elections on January 5 that could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. Incumbent GOP Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler face off against their respective Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

Newsweek reached out to the Biden transition team for comment.