Texas Attorney General Suit Accuses 4 States Of Skewing Election

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia claiming those states exploited the coronavirus pandemic to justify ignoring federal and state election laws, skewing election results and leading to last month's victory for Democrat Joe Biden.

In a news release announcing the lawsuit filed in the U.S. Supreme Court, Paxton said each of the states flooded residents with unlawful ballot applications and ballots while ignoring statutory requirements as to how they were received, evaluated and counted.

The suit also states that each of the four states enacted last-minute changes because of the pandemic that changed the course of the election.

Each of the states went to Biden, who collected 306 Electoral College votes in his victory over President Donald Trump. The Electoral College votes are to be officially cast Monday.

“Trust in the integrity of our election processes is sacrosanct and binds our citizenry and the States in this Union together. Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin destroyed that trust and compromised the security and integrity of the 2020 election,” Paxton said in the release. “The states violated statutes enacted by their duly elected legislatures, thereby violating the Constitution. 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.

“Their failure to abide by the rule of law casts a dark shadow of doubt over the outcome of the entire election. We now ask that the Supreme Court step in to correct this egregious error.”

Since the election, Trump’s legal team has challenged the election results in each of the states named in Paxton's lawsuit. Judges have ruled against the president, stating there is no proof that any election laws were broken or that fraud exists in declaring Biden the winner. U.S. Attorney General William Barr also recently announced that had found no evidence of widespread fraud of corruption involved in the election.

Trump has refused to concede the election and continues to maintain on Twitter and in public appearances that he won the election and that Biden's victory was "rigged," despite his challenges to have election results overturned in each of the states where he has contested the outcome.

A day after saying at an appearance that he has posted a 2-0 record in elections, Trump retweeted several tweets made by conservatives Tuesday morning, including one from @unscriptedmike claiming that Paxton’s lawsuit may be the case that “breaks this thing wide open.”

In his 36-page filing, Paxton said that in presidential elections, each state must appoint its electors to the Electoral College in a manner that complies with the U.S. Constitution. He said in the news release that the Electors Clause allows that only state legislatures may set the rules governing the appointment of electors and elections, and that it cannot be delegated to local officials.

He also said the majority of the rushed decisions, made by local officials, were not approved by the state legislatures, thereby circumventing the Constitution.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel responded to Paxton’s lawsuit on Tuesday, calling the filing a publicity stunt rather than a legal pleading.

She said the erosion of confidence in the democratic system is attributable not to voters in states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and other key states but instead to partisan officials such as Paxton who “place loyalty to a person over loyalty to their country.”

“Mr. Paxton’s actions are beneath the dignity of the office of Attorney General and the people of the great state of Texas,” Nessel wrote.