Texas Sues PA, Other Battleground States Over Election Results

PENNSYLVANIA — With time running out before the Electoral College meets in less than a week, Republicans both in Pennsylvania and elsewhere have filed new lawsuits contesting the state's election results. It's the latest in a lengthy series of futile attempts by President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his loss in the 2020 general election.

On Tuesday, Texas sued Pennsylvania and other battleground states including Georgia, Wisconsin, and Michigan, claiming the votes were "tainted" by last minute changes to election law. The Texas Attorney General is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and block the vote.

“Don’t mess with Texas,” said Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis.

The suit reiterates numerous claims that have already been raised and dismissed in a wide array of cases in both federal and state court over the past month.

"By ignoring both state and federal law, these states have not only tainted the integrity of their own citizens’ vote, but of Texas and every other state that held lawful elections,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. "We now ask that the Supreme Court step in to correct this egregious error.”

Specifically, the 154-page filing resurfaces the complaints about the distance poll watchers were kept from ballots, as well as the claim that voters in Democratic areas of these states, including Pennsylvania, received favorable treatment in the form of allowing ballots to with errors to be fixed. It also says that Pennsylvania Secretary of State "unilaterally" violated the law by not requiring signature verification on mail-in ballots.

Gov. Tom Wolf called Paxton's effort an "attack on democracy."

"The nation's attorney general, former election security chief, and countless judges have confirmed there's no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election," he said via Twitter Tuesday. "It’s time for Republican leaders to put America first and stop these attacks on our democracy."

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, groups of Republican state legislators have once again taken to the state's Commonwealth Court.

"We are in a fight for the survival of our REPUBLIC!" Pennsylvania State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, one of the 11 GOP plaintiffs in the suit, said on social media. "These usurpers on the PA Supreme Court have violated the law and the Constitution in their attempt to help Pelosi and Biden! I am actively fighting to defend our constitutions!"

Metcalfe's suit cites the "Performance Audit Report" of the election produced by the Pennsylvania Department of State and the Department of the Auditor General, and points to allegedly inaccurate voter records and insufficient security measures.

It also includes 28 pages of testimony from a truck driver contractor for the U.S. Postal Service who said he picked up pallets containing 200,000 mail-in ballots in New York, and then delivered them to Pennsylvania. The suit then claims that 200,000 votes were then "delivered into the Pennsylvania System improperly or illegally."

State officials have repeatedly asserted there is no evidence of fraud in the 2020 election and that allegations raised in GOP suits, both in Pennsylvania and other battleground states nationwide, are baseless and dangerous.

The goal of this suit, filed against Gov. Wolf, Boockvar, and the state's electors, is to prevent the state from certifying the electors that will cast Pennsylvania's 20 votes for President-elect Joe Biden.

"This has become a circus," Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in response on Twitter Tuesday, adorning his comments with clown face emojis. "The continued attacks on our election are beyond meritless, beyond reckless. It is a scheme by the sitting president & his enablers to disregard the will of the people. It’s not serious & it will not stand."

It's not the first case to bring an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court directly. The other major GOP suit which lawmakers want the highest court to hear targets the constitutionality of Pennsylvania's Act 77, the 2019 law providing "no-excuse" mail-in balloting. When it was passed before the pandemic struck, it enjoyed broad bipartisan support in the Republican-dominant legislature.

More than a month following Election Day, President Trump has continued to refuse to concede the race, amplifying many of these claims in dozens of cases contesting the election.

The latest filings come less than week before the Electoral College meets for its vote on Dec. 14. Tuesday, Dec. 8 is the final day for any changes to be made to the state's electors.