The principal author of the Fourteenth Amendment, Republican Congressman Jonathan Bingham (OH), and the father of the Republican Party, President Abraham Lincoln, clearly explained that state legislatures and Congress have a joint responsibility to verify the authenticity of the certification of electors and electoral votes.
‘Jefferson, Nixon, Gore, all three of them acted unilaterally over the objections of House members and Senate members, so Mike Pence could do the same thing.’
Though usually a mere formality, the upcoming formal electoral vote count in Congress offers a theoretical avenue for contesting specific electoral votes in extraordinary cases.
'The right to vote in a free and fair election is the cornerstone of our Republic. Attempts to subvert the Constitutional authority of state legislatures to conduct elections strikes at the very heart of representative government.'