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| - FACT CHECK: Ted Cruz Claimed Democrats Objected To Certifying Presidential Elections
During a CNN interview Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz claimed that Democrat lawmakers objected to the certification of the 2000, 2004, and 2016 elections.
My full exchange with Sen. Ted Cruz, who was the first senator to object in 2020, on whether he’ll accept the election results in 2024: pic.twitter.com/nMuHv26Pzk
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) May 23, 2024
Verdict: True
Several House Democrats objected to the election results in 2001, 2005 and 2017. Only one time, though, did a Senate Democrat join them in their objection.
Fact Check:
A video shared on X shows Cruz defending his objection to the certification of the 2020 election, saying, “In 2001, Democrats went to the Senate floor and objected to George W. Bush. In 2004, they went and objected. In 2016, Democrats went and objected to Donald Trump.”
Darin Miller, a Cruz spokesperson, directed Check Your Fact to sources showing evidence for Democrats objecting to the election results for the years of 2000, 2004 and 2016.
Miller pointed to a video posted to C-SPAN showing that California Rep. Maxine Waters objected to the results of the 2000 election, claiming votes from California were fraudulent. No senator, though, joined in the objection, despite Cruz’s claim that in 2001 “Democrats went to the Senate floor” to object to the election.
The next source is a Jan. 6, 2005 CNN article reporting that a group of Democrats in Congress objected to the 2004 election results in Ohio. Then California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer also objected to the results, but the House and Senate both did not uphold the objection, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Lastly, Miller referenced a Jan. 13, 2021 fact check from Newsweek that found seven House Democrats objected to the results of the 2016 election in various states, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina.
Newsweek reported that for an objection of this nature to be considered, members of both houses of Congress must sign on to the motion. At the time of the certification no senator signed on. Therefore, then-Vice President Joe Biden was legally obligated to deny the objection, which he did.
Miller did offer a correction to Cruz’s claim that “Democrats went to the Senate floor” in 2001, saying that it was 2005 when the objections were brought to the Senate floor.
The Los Angeles Times reported at the time of the certification of George W. Bush’s win, several Congress members opposed certifying the electoral votes of certain states. The outlet reported that a dozen Democratic lawmakers did formally object to the certification of Florida’s electoral votes. They cited claims of inaccurate vote count that Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee described as “millions of Americans who have been disenfranchised by Florida’s inaccurate vote count.”
However, Al Gore did concede the 2000 election to Bush, according to Politico. He was vice president at the time and oversaw the certification process after his concession and rejected several. (RELATED: Does This Photo Show Trump’s Recent Rally In The Bronx?)
Ohio Democrats in 2005 objected to Bush’s 2004 re-election, citing “missing voting machines” and “unusually long lines,” according to NBC News. Bush won the election in Ohio by 118,000 votes and the national contest by 3.3 million votes, the outlet reported.
147 Congressional Republicans, including Cruz, objected to the certification of the 2020 presidential election in one or two states such as Arizona and Pennsylvania, according to the New York Times. These objections were not sustained by either the House or the Senate.
Anna Mock contributed to this report.
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