Vice President Mike Pence has the ability to overrule the Electoral College vote and can essentially decide the outcome of the presidential election, said Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), coming after Department of Justice lawyers argued Pence is not the proper defendant in the suit.
The DOJ’s lawyers, representing Pence, argued that Gohmert should be filing a lawsuit against Congress, not Pence’s office.
“Under the Constitution, [Pence] has the authority to conduct that proceeding as he sees fit. He may count elector votes certified by a state’s executive, or he can prefer a competing slate of duly qualified electors,” Gohmert’s attorneys wrote in a brief (pdf) on New Year’s Day. “He may ignore all electors from a certain state. That is the power bestowed upon him by the Constitution.”
The Constitution’s 12th Amendment “unequivocally entrusts” Pence the “rights to determine what electoral votes to count” during the Joint Session of Congress on Jan. 6.