Ted Cruz's effort to derail key election reform bill ends with a whimper
Some Republicans have tried to stop the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act from passing the U.S. Senate -- including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who fought the bill from making it out of the Senate Rules Committee to a full Senate vote, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
The bill is Sen. Susan Collins' (R-ME) attempt to reinforce laws that the vice president has no power unilaterally reject certified election results, as former President Donald Trump urged Vice President Mike Pence to do.
Even though Trump himself has demanded that Senate Republicans vote against the bill, his pleas have fallen on deaf ears as many GOP senators are lining up behind it.
"Indeed, whatever opposition existed, it has generally only reared its head when votes were forced. To the extent anyone wanted to defeat the bill, they didn’t lodge their case too loudly," wrote the Post.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced his support for the bill and other Republicans have quietly fallen in line, with the exception of Cruz and possibly others who have remained quiet.
According to Cruz, the law would diminish Congressional authority to "root out voter fraud," which is typically a legal issue dealt with by state law enforcement. There's no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would have altered the results of the 2020 election.
“I don’t believe senators from this side of the aisle should be supporting a bill that enhances the federalization of elections and reduces the ability of Congress to respond to the very serious problem of voter fraud,” Cruz said.
Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli, meanwhile, claimed that Republicans shouldn't support the bill because Democrats will probably force their election reform rules in the legislation.
But a staff writer of the Libertarian Cato Institute, Andy Craig, noted that any claim the bill is a poisoned pill is false.
“If there has been anybody advocating an unconstitutional federal takeover of the electoral college process, it was those urging federal courts and Congress to throw out the duly cast electoral votes certified by the states in 2020,” Craig wrote.
It's unclear if Cruz will be able to bring anyone else along with him to block the election protection legislation.
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