Rick, to me this is all very weird. By that I mean the Constitution in plain English states, “The President of the senate shall, in the presence of the senate and the house of representatives, open all certificates, and the votes shall be counted.”

That seems pretty cut and dried to me. No authority to change anything or even challenge anything if one goes by the plain English the Constitution is written in. All that can be done is to count the electoral votes from each state. I realize the 1872 electoral college act was to enhance or clarify what the constitution stated. But was clarification needed? The VP or president of the senate according to the Constitution has no authority to change anything, just count. Are challenges to the certificates sent to congress constitutional by members of congress? If all that can be done is the counting, I’d say no.

The question is, am I missing something here. It all seems cut and dried. That is if one goes by what is written in the Constitution in plain English. Now I don’t speak lawyerese, so what is written in plain English may not be what lawyerese says what is written and could be something completely different that what plain English states.

It's high past time that we start electing Americans to congress and the presidency who put America first instead of their political party. For way too long we have been electing Republicans and Democrats who happen to be Americans instead of Americans who happen to be Republicans and Democrats.