Vernon Ehlers: “we have heard a lot of misinformation this evening. My purpose here is to simply try to lay out some facts and some…”

“we have heard a lot of misinformation this evening. My purpose here is to simply try to lay out some facts and some information about the process that is used. First of all, recognize that nothing is more sacred to the democratic process than to ensure that each legitimate voter be allowed to vote and that their votes be counted. Furthermore, that the voter be assured that no illegal votes be allowed to be cast or to be counted. The principle of one person, one vote, or one citizen, one vote is extremely important in our system of government. So important, in fact, that the founders of our Nation decided to put it in the Constitution and ensure that the elections of the House were valid, and gave to the House itself the power, as we read in section 5 of Article I, near the beginning of the Constitution, that 'Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own Members.' Now, any contestant or any loser in an election may file a petition for a contested election. The committee does not choose to file these; the House does not. All of this discussion about picking on a particular person because the attributes of that person is simply false. The House has no control over which elections are contested. The losers of the election make that decision, and I am sure in this particular case we recognize that the person who filed the contest is not someone who would take advice from the House, the committee or anyone else.”