Nothing is in writing and daybreak is a long way away, but it appeared all but certain in early evening Wednesday that House Democrats had secured the support of up to half a dozen Senators to formally challenge the Electoral College slate from Ohio, when the votes are opened before a joint session of Congress tomorrow.
Congressional sources tell this reporter that the house half of the written objection \ufffd which has the declared support of more than a dozen Representatives \ufffd is expected to be signed by Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio. Republican leadership expects the Senate signatory to be Barbara Boxer of California, but this has not yet been formalized. The Majority is also worried about the possible absence of many of its members in both houses, and the prospect that a quorum might not be achieved, leading the process into uncharted, albeit not very threatening, constitutional grounds. There is a mathematical, if not practical, chance that the ratification of the Electoral College vote could be delayed past tomorrow.
Getting Boxer to sign on was the key move, as you need at least one Senator to make a challenge. The Democrats had several Representatives that where willing to go with it, but where having trouble finding any Senator that would.
Probably will not effect the ratification of the vote, but hopefully it forces some real election reform. Notice that John Conyers, the real force behind this in Congress, is careful not to use the fraud word. Some things he has said imply that he thinks there was some fraud in addition to the various violations of voting law and common sense. But he will not broach that topic in front of Congress until he has a firm offense to hang in public.
My personal feeling is that there probably wasn't real fraud, but there are serious problems with voting systems in the US. And that not all of those problems can be called accidental. In Ohio it appears that the state Republicans also directly violated voting law.
Jay