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On Jan. 5, 2021, 91 legislators from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin wrote a letter to former Vice President Mike Pence alleging the 2020 election was beset with widespread voter fraud and demanding he postpone the certification of election results on Jan. 6.
The lawmakers argued that the Electoral Count Act of 1897, which stipulates that the vice president preside over a joint session of Congress to certify election results, “is not the supreme law of the land, and in fact must not supersede our state legislative authority under the Constitution.”
Alleging “a coordinated and structured multi-state effort to undermine state law protecting election integrity,” the lawmakers promoted false and debunked claims of widespread voter fraud through “extensive and well-founded accusations of electoral administration mismanagement and deliberate and admitted violations of explicit election laws enacted by state legislatures in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.”
Attached to the letter was a report from the Thomas More Society that alleged private funding of local election offices—specifically from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg—“created a two-tiered election system” that benefited Democrats.
January 6, 2021
- Some of the signatories of the letter, like Georgia lawmakers Burt Jones and Brandon Beach, were involved in the events of Jan. 6. Both were present at the Willard Hotel War Room on Jan. 6.
The Big Lie
- The signatories of the letter demanded Pence postpone certification so they could investigate false and debunked claims of widespread voter fraud and other election irregularities “and as a body vote on certification or decertification of the election.” One copy of the letter included a Thomas More Society report as an attachment to bolster the letter’s claims. The report detailed spending by private organizations such as the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative that went to local election offices to fund additional ballot drop boxes in some voting locations. The signatories of the letter apparently believed this was part of a far-reaching scheme by left-wing groups and the Democratic Party to sway the results of the 2020 election.