Rep. Buck: Congress' Job to Count Votes, Not Determine Election

Congress' job on Wednesday is to count votes after Vice President Mike Pence opens the envelopes from the states, not to "second guess" the result, Republican Rep. Ken Buck said Monday, which explains why he refused to join several other GOP lawmakers in challenging the Electoral College's votes for President-elect Joe Biden. 

"The 12th Amendment makes it pretty clear that Congress has the job of counting the votes after the vice president (who is) the president of the Senate opens the envelopes," the Colorado Republican said on CNN's "New Day." "It is not to second-guess the state legislatures, not to second guess the secretary of state or governor's signature on those ballots, on the information that has been sent to us."

Buck added that he is concerned about voter fraud, but he doesn't agree there were widespread instances in the November election. 

"The attorney general of the United States has looked at these elections in these six states and has opined there was no widespread voter fraud," said Buck. "If you can't trust Bill Barr to make that kind of judgment, I don't know who you can trust. If you can't trust the Department of Justice to look at this election and render an unbiased, fair verdict, then we have more serious problems."

However, Buck agreed that there are millions of Americans who believe the election was unfair, and he believes there should be an examination into how to "make our election process more fair and credible, so the American people trust it more."

He also said he thinks it's a little "inconsistent" for members of Congress who won their elections to be sworn in on Sunday and say they were proud of the voters of their district but still agree with President Donald Trump that the elections were marred by fraud. 

Buck further said the Republican leaders in Georgia deserve credit for running a fair election when asked for comment on the phone call between President Donald Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. 

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