ATLANTA — Rep. Jody Hice said Monday night he would lead an objection against Georgia's Electoral College votes when they're counted with the rest of the country's on Jan. 6.
A number of Republican allies of President Donald Trump from Georgia could join him, including incoming Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was reportedly at a White House meeting this week to strategize on the objections.
The counting of the electoral votes is a process long considered a sleepy formality that is now being framed as a last stand of sorts for President Trump, whose legal efforts to overturn the Nov. 3 election have uniformly failed.
But could it actually stop Joe Biden from becoming president? The short answer is pretty much no.
Here's the basics of how it works:
- As each state's votes are announced, a member of Congress may raise an objection.
- If they do so, they need a member of the opposite chamber to join them in that objection.
- If that happens, both the Senate and House must meet separately and debate the objection, then vote on it.
- If both chambers vote by majority to uphold the objection, the electoral votes would not immediately count.
This last part has never happened - according to the AP, in 2005 Democrats objected to Ohio's votes, but that objection was dismissed by both chambers, in the only time the process has been tested.
It's also not likely to happen now. Practically speaking, it's going to be effectively impossible for the president to block Biden votes this way.
If Rep. Hice raises the objection, for instance, and has a senator to join him in that objection, and even if the Republican-controlled Senate voted to uphold the objection, the Democrat-controlled House would almost surely reject it, and Georgia's votes would be counted.
Republican lawmakers seem to understand the practical limitations of the process itself, but with the president's legal challenges often being dismissed on basic procedural grounds, they appear to want to use the chance to air the allegations that, to this point, have not been legitimized by any court.
"The courts refuse to hear the President's legal case," Hice tweeted Monday night. "We're going to make sure the People can!"
Incidentally, though, it's unlikely Hice's objection could be joined by a Georgia senator - because the Senate runoffs are scheduled for Jan. 5, it's highly improbable that even if incumbent Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue won re-election, that the results would be certified by the Electoral College count the next day.
Meanwhile, their terms will have officially ended a couple days before. Georgia will effectively be senator-less for a few days at the start of January, and that will coincide with the counting of the electoral votes.
It's worth noting the objection gamble could have theoretically worked for the president - if Republicans controlled the House.
If both the Senate and House upheld enough objections together, and neither the president nor challenger got to 270 electoral votes, then the House decides who wins as prescribed by the 12th Amendment. But not by a full House vote: Each state delegation would get one vote and, though Democrats control the House with more representatives, Republicans have an edge in state delegations, 26-24.
But, as constitutional law expert Edward B. Foley recently told The New York Times when discussing this subject, "By ensuring that both chambers must reject a submission, you reduce the risk of Congress going rogue electorally and repudiating the results of a state."
This might be as closest the process has ever come to that, but it's all but certain it won't be close enough.