Facts Matter: Vice president can't change election results

Members of Congress have discussed changes to the Electoral Count Act as former President Donald Trump continues to claim Mike Pence, his vice president, could have overturned the 2020 election results.

"If the Vice President had 'absolutely no right' to change the Presidential Election results in the Senate, despite fraud and many other irregularities, how come the Democrats and RINO Republicans, like Wacky Susan Collins, are desperately trying to pass legislation that will not allow the Vice President to change the results of the election?" Trump wrote in a Jan. 30 statement. "Actually, what they are saying, is that Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away."

That's not what they're saying, according to USA Today. The fact that some lawmakers want to change the language of the act doesn't mean the vice president has the authority to change election results.

That claim is "patently absurd," University of Notre Dame constitutional studies and political science professor Matthew Hall told USA Today.

"If the vice president had total discretion to overturn election results, the party that controls the White House could simply refuse to surrender power when they lose an election," Hall said. "Such an arrangement would completely undermine the integrity of our democratic system."

A House panel report, looking into clarifying the act, said the presiding officer, the vice president, should not have "substantive discretion over counting votes."

Republican Sen. Susan Collins from Maine told ABC News, "I'm hopeful that we can come up with a bipartisan bill that will make very clear that the vice president's role is simply ministerial."

Wisconsin can't recall electors

Recent online posts claim Wisconsin will be recalling its electoral votes for President Joe Biden.

"HUGE BREAKING NEWS - Wisconsin Assembly Votes to Withdraw Its 10 Electors for Joe Biden in 2020 Election," read a headline on The Gateway Pundit website, which was shared by thousands of social media users.

That news is false, and if it happened, it would be illegal, according to The Associated Press.

Republican state Rep. Timothy Ramthun introduced a resolution to reclaim electors from the 2020 presidential election, but it was not considered. Biden beat Donald Trump by about 20,000 votes in Wisconsin.

The state Assembly's rules committee chair Republican Rep. Jim Steineke said he would not advance the resolution.

"Rep Ramthun just attempted to pass an Assembly resolution to recall WI's presidential electors. Not only is it illegal, it's just plain unconstitutional. As chair of the Rules Committee, there is ZERO chance I will advance this illegal resolution. #EndofStory," Steineke wrote on Twitter.

Facebook didn't ban Lord's Prayer

Some recent social media posts claim Facebook has banned the posting of the Lord's Prayer, also known as the Our Father.

"After hearing Mark Zuckerberg saying that posting of the Lord's Prayer goes against their policies, I'm asking all Christians to please follow my example and post the Lord's Prayer," one user wrote.

The claim is false, according to Reuters. Facebook's Community Standards do not forbid the prayer. The platform's policies do, however, prohibit religious hate speech.

The prayer "does not violate our policies," a spokesperson from Facebook owner Meta told Reuters.

This same false rumor was also debunked in 2020.

Chemtrails not real

A video posted on social media last month shows a speaker claiming, "Since 2000, the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy have been spraying the entire United States sky with the toxic brew of chemicals and other biologic agents."

This is a conspiracy theory that the condensation trails behind airplanes are chemtrails, according to PolitiFact. Those who push the theory believe the trails are used for weather modification, chemical or biological weapons testing and manipulating stock prices by damaging crops.

Atmospheric chemists and geochemists surveyed in 2016 found that chemtrails are not real. That study said "well-understood physical and chemical processes" show the trails to be typical airplane contrail formations.

The Air Force said contrails are formed by a combination of high humidity and low temperatures, are composed of ice crystals and are not a health risk to humans, PolitiFact reported.

The Environmental Protection Agency said it is not aware of any biological chemicals being released into the atmosphere.

• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.