A group of 11 US Republican senators and senators-elect on Saturday issued a joint statement ahead of the Electoral College certification process on January 6 indicating their intent to contest President-elect Joe Biden’s victory along with GOP Senator Josh Hawley, who announced a similar intent earlier in the week.

Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), Steve Daines (R-Montana), John Kennedy (R-Louisiana), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), and Mike Braun (R- Indiana), and Senators-elect Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee), and Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) are alleging “voter fraud, violations and lax enforcement of election law, and other voting irregularities.”

Senator Lankford took to social media and said:

We have reports of problems with voting machines, people voting twice, non-residents voting in a state, or people mysteriously voting after their death months or years before. In some states, there were problems with signature verification, different rules for mail-in ballots than in-person ballots, delayed receipt of ballots, inconsistent curing of ballots, a lack of meaningful access to the polls, or a questionable counting process for partisan poll watchers.

The joint statement quotes a public opinion survey from Reuters/Ipsos showing that among 1,346 persons surveyed, 39 percent of Americans (strongly or somewhat) believe that “the election was rigged,” despite the same survey showing 73% of Americans believing that Joe Biden won the presidential election.

The senators are demanding an electoral commission be appointed with “full investigatory and fact-finding authority” to carry out an emergency 10-day audit of the election results in the disputed states, and a special legislative session in individual states to evaluate the commission’s findings and to certify a change in their vote, if necessary.

The joint statement said:

These are matters worthy of the Congress, and entrusted to us to defend. We do not take this action lightly. We are acting not to thwart the democratic process, but rather to protect it. And every one of us should act together to ensure that the election was lawfully conducted under the Constitution and to do everything we can to restore faith in our Democracy.

According to the 1887 Electoral Count Act, Congress shall meet on January 6 following any meeting of the Electoral College to count the votes cast by the electors representing each state. While  the law does allow for objections to the counting of votes, an objection must come from both the Senate and House of Representatives, and after debate be approved by a majority of both chambers for any vote to not be counted.

Objections leading to debate have occurred twice in modern US history. For the first time after the enactment of the 1887 Electoral Count Act, in 1969, an objection was raised against counting North Carolina’s vote because of an alleged ‘faithless elector,’ then again in 2005, an objection was raised against the counting of Ohio’s vote because of reported ‘election irregularities‘ regarding the administration of the 2004 presidential election.

Both times objections proceeded to vote in modern US history, Congress failed to obtain the necessary majority in either chamber for any votes to be discounted. However, if an objection is raised, both chambers are allotted up to two hours to debate the merits of the objection. A member may only speak for up to 5 minutes before a vote is held in each chamber as to whether to the vote(s) should be counted.

Many lawsuits alleging election fraud have already been dismissed by US courts in multiple states and several GOP leaders have publicly congratulated President-elect Joe Biden as the winner. It is unlikely that both chambers have the requisite votes to disqualify any electoral college votes.