Texas sues Wisconsin, other battleground states in U.S. Supreme Court over election results
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In another last-ditch bid to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Texas is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse election results in Wisconsin and three other battleground states, but the effort may prove futile after the high court on Tuesday rejected a Republican attempt to reverse results in Pennsylvania.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton directly petitioned the Supreme Court on Monday to block the presidential electors in those states from voting for Biden when the Electoral College meets Monday, and to override the will of the states’ voters by forcing their Legislatures to appoint presidential electors instead.
Paxton is challenging the election results in Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania — all states Biden won — based on differences in election administration the case contends are favorable to Democrats, COVID-19-related changes to elections rules by non-legislative actors, and “the appearance of voting irregularities.”
It’s not yet clear whether the court will take the case.
In the rejected Pennsylvania case, the court without comment refused to call into question the certification process in Pennsylvania. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf already has certified Biden’s victory and the state’s 20 electors are to meet on Monday to cast their votes for Biden.
Biden won 306 electoral votes, so even if Pennsylvania’s results had been in doubt, he still would have more than the 270 electoral votes needed to become president.
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Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly of northwestern Pennsylvania and other plaintiffs pleaded with the justices to intervene after the state Supreme Court turned away their case.
The Republicans argued that Pennsylvania’s expansive vote-by-mail law is unconstitutional because it required a constitutional amendment to authorize its provisions.
Biden beat President Donald Trump by more than 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania, a state Trump won in 2016. Most mail-in ballots were submitted by Democrats.
The state’s high court said the plaintiffs waited too long to file the challenge and noted the Republicans’ staggering demand that an entire election be overturned retroactively. In the underlying lawsuit, Kelly and the other Republican plaintiffs had sought to either throw out the 2.5 million mail-in ballots submitted under the law or to wipe out the election results and direct the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature to pick Pennsylvania’s presidential electors.
Wisconsin Supreme Court declines to take up Trump lawsuit challenging election results
Local Government
Wisconsin Supreme Court declines to take up Trump lawsuit challenging election results
Riley Vetterkind | Wisconsin State Journal
Because Texas is suing other states, the U.S. Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over the matter, meaning lower courts don’t need to hear the case first. The case is one of several that have been filed against Wisconsin and other states’ election results despite the fact state and federal officials have debunked the claims about widespread voter fraud that many of them rely upon.
U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, a Republican appointed by President Donald Trump, recently declared the Justice Department had uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election.
The other major case potentially affecting Wisconsin’s election results, scheduled for a hearing and potential determination on Thursday, seeks to throw out Biden’s victory not on major allegations of voter fraud, but rather legal disputes about established election rules.
Seeking remedy
The Texas case contends the alleged breaches of election law in the defendant states violate federal law and affect the popular votes in those states, therefore requiring the high court to allow state Legislatures — controlled by Republicans in Wisconsin — to appoint presidential electors instead, presumably handing a victory to Trump.
It also relies upon baseless claims of voter fraud in the four states as well as dubious extrapolations claiming the probability of Biden winning the popular vote in the four states legitimately is “less than one in a quadrillion” and that the chance of winning all those states collectively is “less than one in a quadrillion to the fourth power,” given Biden’s vote tally in the states at 3 a.m. on Nov. 4.
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The lawsuit failed to mention that many absentee ballots had not yet been counted at that time, as was expected due to the surge in mail-in voting in 2020 and because local officials were barred by state law from counting those ballots before Election Day.
The lawsuit further takes issue with municipal clerks’ use of secure absentee ballot drop-off boxes, which it claims are prohibited; the fact Dane and Milwaukee counties initially encouraged people to register as “indefinitely confined” to bypass voter ID laws, even though those officials retracted such advice before the November election; and some clerks who filled in missing absentee witness address information based on reliable information, which the Wisconsin Elections Commission, charged with administering state elections, approved.
University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck ripped the lawsuit.
“It looks like we have a new leader in the ‘craziest lawsuit filed to purportedly challenge the election’ category,’” he tweeted. “Spoiler alert: The Court is never going to hear this one.”
Kaul, Evers respond
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, called the Texas case and others brought by Trump and his allies meritless.
“I feel sorry for Texans that their tax dollars are being wasted on such a genuinely embarrassing lawsuit,” Kaul said. “Texas is as likely to change the outcome of the Ice Bowl as it is to overturn the will of Wisconsin voters in the 2020 presidential election.”
Paxton, the Texas AG, was indicted in 2015 for securities fraud and is facing new criminal allegations from several of his top deputies, who said they believe he broke the law by using his agency to do favors for a political donor. The FBI is investigating Paxton over those claims, according to the Associated Press. Paxton has denied wrongdoing.
During a media call Tuesday, Evers highlighted Paxton’s brushes with the law.
“Think of the irony here,” Evers said. “We have a Texas attorney general who is being investigated by the FBI for various improprieties, numerous newspapers in Texas calling for his resignation, and he teams up with President Trump to try to take away the votes of the people of Wisconsin. It’s irony, but it’s not funny irony, it’s extraordinarily sad.”
Biden won Wisconsin by more than 20,600 votes, according to Wisconsin’s official election certification.
The Texas case was filed just before Tuesday’s federal “Safe Harbor deadline” for states to notify Congress of their presidential election determination.
Explained: What to expect in Wisconsin’s election lawsuits
Local Government
Explained: What to expect in Wisconsin’s election lawsuits
Riley Vetterkind | Wisconsin State Journal
Legal experts say the “Safe Harbor” deadline isn’t a firm deadline, but it is beneficial for states to meet it because it binds Congress to accept those electoral votes on Jan. 6, even if there is an objection to them. The deadline is expected to matter little, however, because the likelihood of both chambers of a split Congress throwing out a state’s electoral votes based on an objection is slim to none.
Trump files second lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s election results, this time in federal court
Local Government
Trump files second lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s election results, this time in federal court
Riley Vetterkind | Wisconsin State Journal
Experts say Monday’s meeting of the Electoral College is a clearer deadline they wouldn’t expect a court to blow past. It’s not clear what would happen if Wisconsin’s slate of electors weren’t able to vote on that date.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Fave 5: Reporter Riley Vetterkind shares his top stories of 2020
Fave 5: Reporter Riley Vetterkind shares his top stories of 2020
It goes without saying this year has been a whirlwind, and it’s not even over yet. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented our state and country with one of the foremost crises of the past century.
While some crises in our history managed to unite the nation, the story of this year’s crisis is much different. COVID-19 and the response to it have accelerated America’s and Wisconsin’s deep political divisions and leave our politics in a nearly constant state of disarray.
Here’s a look back at some of this year’s top stories in state government and politics.
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