UPDATES: Electoral College Counting Day; ARIZONA REPS. Will Be Debating Both Sides Of Arizona's Presidential Election

Arizona will be the first of the five swing states that Republicans intend to challenge in today's counting of the Electoral College votes, and Arizona's Politics will be providing coverage.

Congress will be convening at 11am, Arizona Time. We do not know how much initial skirmishing over rules and procedures there will be, but it is very likely that Congress will proceed opening the states' electoral votes and announcing them in alphabetical order. That is one of the procedures typically followed.

Thus, we are fairly certain that once the process of announcing begins, the Arizona challenge will

happen pretty quickly. Arizona's Politics has spoken with several of the Congressional offices, and a relatively clear picture is emerging. Several members of our House delegation will be taking part in the 2-hour debate that will happen concurrently in the House and Senate chambers.

So far, we have confirmations that Rep. Andy Biggs (R-CD5) will be leading the challenge to the bi-partisan certification of Arizona's Presidential election of the 11 Biden/Harris electors. He will have up to 5 minutes to speak, although he may yield a portion of that. It is also likely that one or more of the rest of Arizona's GOP delegation (Gosar, Schweikert, Lesko) will speak.

On the Democratic side, there will be a group of Representatives from around the country leading the defense of Arizona's - and the other swing states that Biden won - election process. However, it is fairly certain that Arizona Reps. Ruben Gallego (D-CD7) and Greg Stanton (D-CD9) will be part of the presentation. Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-CD3) is another possible defender. Arizona's Politics has not heard whether the rest of Arizona's Democratic delegation (O'Halloran, Kirkpatrick) will participate in the two hour debate.

Similarly, the plans over on the Senate side are still unclear. Arizona has two Democratic Senators, Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly.

It is also expected that many of the elected officials who do not get a chance to speak will submit their written remarks for the record.

It is highly unlikely that either Congressional body - either the Democratic-controlled House or the (still) Republican-controlled Senate - will vote to approve the objections to Arizona's election. And, given that none of the courts, all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, have approved of the AZGOP-led requests to find the Electoral Count Act unconstitutional and grant Vice President Mike Pence the power to single-handedly decline to accept Arizona's certification of the 11 Biden/Harris electors, it is likely that Pence will grudgingly announce the acceptance of Arizona's election.

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