The state of Texas is suing Pennsylvania over the election.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, filed a 154-page lawsuit against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin on Tuesday, the so-called “safe harbor” date in federal law that calls for states to resolve election disputes.
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The Texas lawsuit alleges that the four states violated the Electors Clause, Equal Protection, and Due Process clauses of the U.S. Constitution. It calls for the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the states’ legislatures to pick the electors, which could overturn the results of the election, and requests the Supreme Court to block the states from allowing votes from the Electoral College next week.
“The four states exploited the COVID-19 pandemic to justify ignoring federal and state election laws and unlawfully enacting last-minute changes, thus skewing the results of the 2020 General Election. The battleground states flooded their people with unlawful ballot applications and ballots while ignoring statutory requirements as to how they were received, evaluated and counted,” Paxton’s office said in a statement.
The Texas Tribune reported that Paxton himself is cited as the lead attorney on the case. It is uncommon for the attorney general of a large state like Texas to be lead counsel on a case.
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Paxton has been in the national spotlight recently after reports came out that several of his staff members resigned and he is under investigation by the FBI for corruption and abuse of power. He is awaiting court for an unrelated indictment on securities fraud charges.
President-elect Joe Biden won more votes than incumbent President Donald Trump and is expected to be elected by the Electoral College next week.
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Although certified and unofficial election results have shown Biden won the election, Trump has claimed he is the real winner. His campaign and supporters have filed numerous lawsuits, but nearly all have been thrown out. Trump and his allies have also spread conspiracy theories about the election and sought to have state lawmakers overturn the results, including in Pennsylvania, according to reports.
There has been no evidence of widespread election fraud. Top members of Trump’s administration, including the attorney general, have stated publicly there was no major election fraud discovered.
Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Jeremy Roebuck noted that the lawsuit had several factual mistakes related to Pennsylvania. The mistakes include claiming Philadelphia used the Dominion voting system, leaving out details on the theft of USB drives from a Philadelphia election facility, claiming observers were not allowed to observe the counting of ballots, and that “a great number of ballots” came in after election day.
Credit: PA Internet News Service
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Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a statement that the lawsuit is an attack on a “fair and free election system.”
“These attempts are uniquely unserious – nothing has worked in court, in the legislature, and now the Texas attorney general is seeking to just throw out the electoral votes all together in four fellow states. These factless, baseless ‘lawsuits’ to stir confusion and doubt in our systems are un-American and we should not allow this circus to continue,” he said.
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“It’s well past time for the President and our fellow states and elected officials to stop misleading the public about this year’s election and to acknowledge that the results certified in our states reflect the decisions made by the voters in a free, fair, and secure election,” Shapiro, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a later joint statement.
Bloomberg News quoted Wendy Weiser, the head of the democracy program at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, as stating the lawsuit has “no chance of success.”
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“It’s worse than nonsensical,” Harvard University constitutional law Professor Laurence Tribe, who has been a Trump critic, said to the Houston Chronicle. “It’s outrageous, outlandish, and outside any imaginable constitutional box.”
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