States assail 'bogus' Texas bid to overturn U.S. election at Supreme Court

By Lawrence Hurley

 

Birds fly over the White House at dusk in Washington, U.S., December 10, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin on Thursday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a lawsuit filed by Texas and backed by President Donald Trump seeking to undo President-elect Joe Biden's election victory, saying the case has no factual or legal grounds and offers "bogus" claims.

 

"What Texas is doing in this proceeding is to ask this court to reconsider a mass of baseless claims about problems with the election that have already been considered, and rejected, by this court and other courts," Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania's Democratic attorney general, wrote in a filing to the nine justices.

 

Texas filed the long-shot suit against the four election battleground states on Tuesday directly with the Supreme Court. It asked that the voting results in those states be thrown out because of their changes in voting procedures that allowed expanded mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic.

 

Trump's campaign and his allies already have been spurned in numerous lawsuits in state and federal courts challenging the election results. Legal experts have said the Texas lawsuit has little chance of succeeding and have questioned whether Texas has the legal standing to challenge election procedures in other states.

 

Biden, a Democrat, defeated Trump in the four states, which the Republican president had won in the 2016 election.

The Texas lawsuit, Shapiro wrote, was adding to a "cacophony of bogus false claims" about the election.

 

Michigan's Democratic attorney general, Dana Nessel, listed the many cases filed in that state that Trump and his backers already have lost.

 

"The challenge here is an unprecedented one, without factual foundation or a valid legal basis," Nessel wrote in Michigan's filing.

 

Chris Carr, Georgia's Republican attorney general, noted like the others that Texas cannot show it has been harmed by the election results in other states.

 

"The novel and far-reaching claims that Texas asserts, and the breathtaking remedies it seeks, are impossible to ground in legal principles and unmanageable," Carr wrote in Georgia's filing.

 

Josh Kaul, Wisconsin's Democratic attorney general, noted that Trump already had obtained recounts in the two most heavily Democratic counties in the state, showing no problems with the results.

 

"There has been no indication of any fraud, or anything else that would call into question the reliability of the election results," Kaul wrote in Wisconsin's filing.

 

TRUMP MEETS TEXAS OFFICIAL

Trump filed a motion with the court on Wednesday asking the nine justices to let him intervene and become a plaintiff in the suit filed by Ken Paxton, the Republican attorney general of Texas and an ally of the president. Trump met on Thursday with Paxton and other state attorneys general who support the suit.

 

Twenty states joined the District of Columbia in filing a brief lodged by Democratic officials on Thursday backing the four states targeted by Texas. Seventeen other states on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to hear the case in filings by Republican officials.

 

Trump has falsely claimed he won re-election and has made baseless allegations of widespread voting fraud. State election officials have said they have found no evidence of such fraud.

 

"The Supreme Court has a chance to save our Country from the greatest Election abuse in the history of the United States," Trump wrote on Twitter on Thursday, repeating his unfounded allegations that the election was rigged against him.

 

The lawsuit does not make specific fraud allegations. Instead, Texas said changes to voting procedures removed protections against fraud and were unlawful when the reforms were made by officials in the four states or courts without the approval of the states' legislatures.

 

Democrats and other critics have accused Trump of aiming to reduce public confidence in U.S. election integrity and undermine democracy by trying to subvert the will of the voters.

 

One Republican state attorney general, Dave Yost of Ohio, filed a separate brief on Thursday disagreeing with the Texas proposal that votes be tossed out, saying that it "would undermine a foundational premise of our federalist system: the idea that the States are sovereigns, free to govern themselves."

 

Texas asked the Supreme Court to immediately block the four states from using the voting results to appoint presidential electors to the Electoral College and allow their state legislatures to name the electors rather than having the electors reflect the will of the voters. All four of the targeted states have Republican-led legislatures.

 

Biden has amassed 306 electoral votes - far higher than the necessary 270 - compared to Trump's 232 in the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the election's outcome. The four states contribute 62 electoral votes to Biden's total.

 

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Additional reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Will Dunham)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-12-11

 

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43 minutes ago, webfact said:

Texas asked the Supreme Court to immediately block the four states from using the voting results to appoint presidential electors to the Electoral College and allow their state legislatures to name the electors rather than having the electors reflect the will of the voters. All four of the targeted states have Republican-led legislatures.

"Appoint presidential electors to the Electoral College and allow their state legislatures to name the electors " 

 A Democratic Process that I would love to see upheld, to preserve the republic imop!

Edited December 10, 20205 yr by riclag

39 minutes ago, webfact said:

The lawsuit does not make specific fraud allegations. Instead, Texas said changes to voting procedures removed protections against fraud and were unlawful when the reforms were made by officials in the four states or courts without the approval of the states' legislatures.

This a joke. They should file a lawsuit against themselves! ????

 

"Essentially, the Texas lawsuit alleges executive officials in the four states that went for Biden improperly tweaked voting rules, thus invalidating their results. But Texas' own Republican governor did exactly the same thing, using an executive order to extend the early voting period for the 2020 election, Reuters' Brad Heath notes. The suit also alleges Pennsylvania's decision to accept late-arriving ballots "raise[s] concerns about election integrity" there, even though Kansas and Mississippi, two supporters in the case, accepted late ballots as well."

https://news.yahoo.com/17-red-states-join-texas-211617457.html

Republican Party: The party of shamelessness

 

Absolutely Sickening

50 minutes ago, riclag said:

"Appoint presidential electors to the Electoral College and allow their state legislatures to name the electors " 

 A Democratic Process that I would love to see upheld, to preserve the republic imop!

You want to preserve our fragile democracy?  Stop supporting attacks like this.  From dodgy politicians who are under investigation and have been charged with felonies.

 

Sad times when the public supports this type of BS.

 

From the OP.  Nuff said.  Wake up sheeple!  Time to dump Trump.

 

Quote

"What Texas is doing in this proceeding is to ask this court to reconsider a mass of baseless claims about problems with the election that have already been considered, and rejected, by this court and other courts," Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania's Democratic attorney general, wrote in a filing to the nine justices.

 

1 hour ago, riclag said:

"Appoint presidential electors to the Electoral College and allow their state legislatures to name the electors " 

 A Democratic Process that I would love to see upheld, to preserve the republic imop!

And I’d love to see the electoral college abolished and the President elected by the popular vote. 

 

 

Democracy!

6 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

And I’d love to see the electoral college abolished and the President elected by the popular vote. 

 

 

Democracy!

Exactly.  Time for this antiquated organization to go away.  But the GOP won't let that happen.  For obvious reasons.

1 hour ago, candide said:

This a joke. They should file a lawsuit against themselves! ????

 

"Essentially, the Texas lawsuit alleges executive officials in the four states that went for Biden improperly tweaked voting rules, thus invalidating their results. But Texas' own Republican governor did exactly the same thing, using an executive order to extend the early voting period for the 2020 election, Reuters' Brad Heath notes. The suit also alleges Pennsylvania's decision to accept late-arriving ballots "raise[s] concerns about election integrity" there, even though Kansas and Mississippi, two supporters in the case, accepted late ballots as well."

https://news.yahoo.com/17-red-states-join-texas-211617457.html

So the states that Trump won did exactly the same as the ones he lost, and they are now objecting to the process, but not in their own states? Can't decide if that's doublethink or hypocrisy.

3 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

So the states that Trump won did exactly the same as the ones he lost, and they are now objecting to the process, but not in their own states? Can't decide if that's doublethink or hypocrisy.

Texas has a hard core "leave us alone" mentality.  They don't want other states messing with them, so it's surprising they are messing with other states.  More hypocrisy from the GOP.

5 minutes ago, Jeffr2 said:

Exactly.  Time for this antiquated organization to go away.  But the GOP won't let that happen.  For obvious reasons.

When the Founding Fathers set up the system, I don't think they ever envisaged a sociopathic narcissist as president, or a political party without a shred of honor. Grand Old Party? More like Gaggle Of Prostitutes.

Absolute Lunatic President 

1 hour ago, riclag said:

"Appoint presidential electors to the Electoral College and allow their state legislatures to name the electors " 

 A Democratic Process that I would love to see upheld, to preserve the republic imop!

Texas, Kansas and Mississippi, who all tweaked their voting rules allege it is improper for other states to do the same.  Yet you want state legislatures to ignore the will of the people and cast electoral college votes in accordance with party wishes.

Here's a counter proposal - let's throw out all the electoral college votes and simply look at the voting numbers for each individual.  After all that was simply a democratic process to vote for who they wanted to lead their country!

 

Texas AG is not doing this in hope of winning the lawsuit.

He is fishing for a pardon from Trump, using bait paid for by taxpayers

He's been indicted and more investigation ongoing as his aides turned him in for obstruction of justice & bribery

Pride goes before the fall

5 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

When the Founding Fathers set up the system, I don't think they ever envisaged a sociopathic narcissist as president, or a political party without a shred of honor. Grand Old Party? More like Gaggle Of Prostitutes.

Or a state like California with 12% of the population and the 5th largest economy in the world.  Sad they don't get a more powerful say in the Senate.  The GOP loves that.

5 minutes ago, Emdog said:

Texas AG is not doing this in hope of winning the lawsuit.

He is fishing for a pardon from Trump, using bait paid for by taxpayers

He's been indicted and more investigation ongoing as his aides turned him in for obstruction of justice & bribery

Pride goes before the fall

He's running for governor.  And yes, fishing for a pardon!

 

Stunning Trump's cult members are OK with this, but go after Hunter Biden for misc BS.  Incredible.

It seems that the Grand Old Party is filled with Good Old Boys, instead of

decent adults.  I thought the USA, was a United country,but , wow, was I wrong...

Geezer

Someone is fishing for a pardon me thinks hopefully he gets indicted for his crimes and Donald Welch’s on the pardon lol what a disgusting display of sedition hope it’s flushed asap 

2 hours ago, riclag said:

"Appoint presidential electors to the Electoral College and allow their state legislatures to name the electors " 

 A Democratic Process that I would love to see upheld, to preserve the republic imop!

So they need to change the voting system because the one you used for a very long time doesn't suit your dictator. Nice way to try to validate a coup.

Republican Governors and Senators conveniently forgot the OATH of OFFICE they all took on being elected.

None of them now have the right to hold office once they broke the OATH. Well I guess republicans have no morals or conscience right to the top of the party.

3 hours ago, webfact said:

"The Supreme Court has a chance to save our Country from the greatest Election abuse in the history of the United States," Trump wrote on Twitter on Thursday

He is absolutely correct, though not in the way that he means. This has indeed been the greatest abuse in the history of US elections, though the abuse is of course being perpetuated by spurious cases like this.

SCOTUS will undoubtedly not touch this with a <deleted>ty stick, and most likely dismiss it for the garbage that it is.

Meanwhile, shame on those sad individuals who have joined Trumps three wheeled bandwagon.

Nothing but a bunch of whiny crybabies who didn't get their way so they go whingeing to the adults in the room who will obviously say "Go sit down and stop crying before we give you something to cry about."

I think the Attorney General of Pennsylvania put it best that this attempt is a  "'surreal alternate reality' and 'seditious' abuse of the courts."

I am delighted to see that the vast majority of the members responding to this are sane. Dump Trump, a totally corrupt individual devoid of human dignity.

Why are the democrats so scared of investigations into the voting fraud scandal ?  They’ve nothing to hide have they ?

As I 've noted before, this is what can happen when an archaic electoral system allows a defeated President a further 10 weeks in office to wreak havoc on the country. 

This aside the pandemic is showing record cases and fatalities daily while frivolous lawsuits continue to dominate and Congress and the Senate refuse to pass a relief bill for the many millions of sufferers. 

1 hour ago, FritsSikkink said:

So they need to change the voting system because the one you used for a very long time doesn't suit your dictator. Nice way to try to validate a coup.

Need to stop mail in votes and vote in person only

1 minute ago, Foghorn said:

Why are the democrats so scared of investigations into the voting fraud scandal ?  They’ve nothing to hide have they ?

There is no voting fraud scandal. If you want to believe the lies Trump spews on a daily basis, your choice.

OTOH, Trump has plenty to hide, and once the presidential immunity cloak is gone on January 20, he'll be in and out of courtrooms defending himself for years.

He maintains the fiction because that keeps the contributions rolling in from the suckers. Haven't donated yourself, have you?

9 minutes ago, Foghorn said:

Need to stop mail in votes and vote in person only

That's nonsense. Safest method, and the only process for those who can't get around.

Reject it they will. The supreme court has no interest in involving themselves just another of hundreds of massive Trump frauds. 

 

Other than a lack of involvement from the military, this appears to be the equivalent of an attempted take over, or a coup. They did not like the results, and the fact that the American people chose Biden by 7 million votes. All of that toxic spewing of hatred, name calling, fake info, and nastiness resulted in a resounding defeat. Yet?

 

No, it was a fake result. No, it was rigged. The American people love me. The world loves me. How could I lose? Face it Don. You lost 17 businesses. You lost 19 merchandising deals. You lost a major trade war with China. Xi kicked your butt. You lost the negotiations with NK. You cannot negotiate your way out of a paper bag. A sensible person would assume you are accustomed to losing by now. 

 

Chances are, it was the GOP that attempted to rig the election, and yet the margin was still great enough for Biden to win. The GOP has a long and rich history of disqualifying votes by people of color.

 

Calling you a bitter man, a harbinger of discord and misery, and a sore loser would be an understatement. See ya! Bye bye! Pack your bags. You will not be missed. 

Edited December 11, 20205 yr by spidermike007

8 minutes ago, J Town said:

That's nonsense. Safest method, and the only process for those who can't get around.

But the most unsafe for voter fraud