17 red states join Texas' lawsuit to throw out blue states' ballots — even though some had the same voting rules
Texas and a slew of other GOP-leaning states are accusing four blue states of doing the same things they did.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) filed a lawsuit Tuesday asking the Supreme Court to overturn votes in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, thus reversing President-elect Joe Biden's win. Seventeen more states signed on to the suit on Wednesday, though they probably won't do much to further the case's very slim chances of success.
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.
The brief also argues that executive officials shouldn't be able to mess with voting rules. But Texas -- the plaintiff in this case, the state they're supporting -- did that very thing. The governor used executive power to extend the early voting period, among other things. pic.twitter.com/aHFUJH9pOD
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) December 9, 2020
President Trump signaled support for the suit on Wednesday, tweeting that "we will be intervening in the Texas case," but not exactly spelling out what "intervening" meant. Maryland's Democratic Attorney General Brian Frosh meanwhile had these harsh words for the suit he would definitely not be joining.
Maryland will NOT be joining the #Texaslawsuit. The suit is a cesspool of disproved charges, wild speculation, insupportable arguments and silly gibberish.
Joe Biden is the President-Elect. https://t.co/kC6UhUwyLm
— Brian Frosh (@BrianFrosh) December 9, 2020
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