Smith will object to electoral vote certification

Southeast Missouri’s congressman plans to be among those objecting to Wednesday’s certification of the electoral votes from November’s presidential election.

Rep. Jason Smith, who represents the sprawling 8th District, said he and Missouri’s junior senator, Josh Hawley, will be among congressional Republicans highlighting allegations of voting irregularities in the race between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

“Whoever is going to be the next president, we need to make sure they are the valid president, and the only way to do that is to look into all of these issues,” he said in a telephone interview Thursday.

Congress will meet Wednesday to certify the Electoral College’s results, which favored Biden 306-232. Before each chamber of Congress can consider a formal objection, one member of each chamber — the House and Senate — must object. Hawley said earlier in the week he would object to at least one state’s votes. Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama previously said he would also object. If those objections occur, each chamber will consider the objection for two hours and then vote on whether to accept or reject it. Both chambers must agree to accept the objection in order to invalidate a state’s electoral votes. Republicans control the Senate, while Democrats control the House. Such objections are not unusual, as members of both parties have objected to electoral votes in recent federal elections.

When asked if the goal of the objections is to highlight alleged voting irregularities or to seat Trump for a second term, Smith said the purpose is to ensure Americans have faith in democracy.

“The goal is to make sure that 74 million Americans have faith in our constitutional republic,” he said, referring to the number of popular votes Trump received in the election. “There are 74 million Americans who feel like there are so many voting irregularities and they need to be addressed.”

Smith contended a number of states — Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Georgia, among others — did not abide by state election laws and in doing so violated constitutional guarantees of equal protection.

Pandemic

Smith said Southeast Missouri has weathered the COVID-19 pandemic better in some ways that other parts of the country.

He noted the region’s “open for business” mindset as helping keep unemployment lower than in other areas.

The congressman said rollouts of vaccines will help turn a final corner on the disease, though he added the human toll has been high on most Americans.

“I look forward to getting to where everyone is able to get it as soon as possible. The sooner we can get back to normal, the better,” he said. “It’s a real thing, but hopefully we are turning around.”

Ranking member

Smith serves as ranking member of the House’s budget committee, a position he said he sought.

“I wouldn’t jump into it if I didn’t think I could try to make a difference,” he said.

He said the federal government’s budget should reflect its values.

“The Republican Party is not the party of Wall Street. We are the party of the working class. We are the party of the average day American. In our district, Southeast Missouri, that’s us,” he explained. “We are hard-working Americans just trying to get by, and I want to make sure that whenever we craft budgets, they are budgets that reflect the values of us.”

He called the federal government’s current fiscal situation unsustainable, putting the trillion-dollar figures into more familiar terms. He said the federal government has the equivalent of $280,000 on a credit card and spent $65,000 this year while only earning $34,000 — numbers that equate to the federal debt, this year’s federal government expenditure and income.