NEW ORLEANS — While a dozen senators, including Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, have stated their plans to object when members of Congress meet today to count and confirm the Electoral College votes, the American Civil Liberties Union urges Congress to oppose the efforts led by President Trump to trample the will of the American electorate. The ACLU’s position today is consistent with its position after the 2000 election, when it did not support efforts to block Congress from counting Florida's Electoral College votes for George W. Bush, despite disagreement with the Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore.
The ACLU of Louisiana issued the following statement regarding objections to electoral votes for the 2020 presidential election:
“Senator Kennedy and his colleagues will violate their constitutional oath to protect and defend the Constitution if they wrongly object to properly state-certified electoral votes,” said Alanah Odoms Hebert, ACLU of Louisiana executive director. “They will also inflict lasting damage to our republic and to our democratic norms of self-governance and undermine the will of voters. This effort is illegitimate and based on false allegations of voter fraud—a trope used throughout our country’s history to target the voting rights and political power of racial minorities, including Black and Brown voters. Despite over 60 legal challenges that were filed to subvert the will of the people, the courts, federal and state, have been unanimous: Our legal system cannot be used to steal an election.”
“The people have voted—even amidst a pandemic and despite deliberate barriers to the polls,” Odoms continued. “Now, it’s time for members of Congress to do their job and, in accordance with the Constitution, count the votes for president and vice president that have been certified by the states. Voters—not the courts and not Congress—decide elections.”
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