Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, issued a statement Monday calling for a closer examination and audit of the 2020 presidential election results, saying he has decided to vote in favor of rejecting some states’ electoral votes.
“While I am a federalist, I do believe there is enough evidence of compromised processes and breakdowns in election integrity by certain state legislatures that do in fact warrant a closer examination,” read Garcia’s statement, in part. “We need a full forensic audit of several states to ensure all Americans have confidence in our elections.”
The congressman described the 2020 election, in which the Electoral College voted in mid-December to cement President-elect Joe Biden as the victor over President Donald Trump, as “some of the most divisive and polarizing moments in our nation’s brief history.”
Biden won 306 electoral votes and Trump earned 232. California electors cast their 55 votes for the president-elect.
After the Electoral College’s vote last month, Biden addressed the nation and called for unity. “The integrity of our elections remains intact,” he said. “Now it is time to turn the page, to unite, to heal.”
Trump has challenged those results in state and federal courts, where his legal team has tried to convince judges to void millions of votes cast in six key states where they have argued that Biden’s win is fraudulent.
In his statement, Garcia said state election laws were fundamentally altered “by bureaucrats outside of the state legislatures” in those six states.
“This is in violation of the Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 and Article 1, section 4 of the federal Constitution and the processes set forth for directing the selection of electors and managing elections. There is no gray area in this regard,” he said.
Congress is expected to meet Wednesday to certify election results — the final step in certifying the next president. Should there be any objections, the session is suspended and both the Senate and the House consider the objections separately.
Garcia said the vote is not about the president and the president-elect but about “seeking assured security.”
“Assured security not only for the last election but more importantly for future elections,” he said. “Assured security in knowing that not only will every legitimate vote be counted, but also that every illegitimate and fraudulent vote will not be counted.”
Ahead of that certification, some GOP legislators, led by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, have already announced they will challenge the outcome of the election results by voting to reject some of the states’ electoral votes. Garcia announced he is among those challenging state electors.
“This decision is not one that I take lightly. I have examined all available evidence in several states currently being disputed, and I have digested the constitutional arguments from both sides of this discussion,” he said. “We are clearly in the midst of a constitutional collision.”
“We must have assurances of election security, and in the end, we may see there was no fraud or at least not enough fraud to affect the outcome,” Garcia added. “This is also good to know. Right now, we know nothing.”
On Sunday, Garcia was also sworn in for his first full term in the 25th Congressional District after a razor-thin win of 333 votes over challenger Christy Smith during the November 2020 election.
