Texas asks US supreme court to help Trump upend election

The state of Texas, aiming to help US president Donald Trump upend the results of the election, said on Tuesday it has sued Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin at the supreme court, calling changes those states made to election procedures amid the coronavirus pandemic unlawful.

The long-shot lawsuit, announced by the Republican attorney general of Texas Ken Paxton, was being filed directly with the supreme court rather than with a lower court, as is permitted for certain litigation between states. The supreme court has a 6-3 conservative majority including three justices appointed by Mr Trump.

The legal action represents the latest effort intended to reverse the Republican president's loss to Democratic president-elect Joe Biden in the November 3rd election. Those efforts have so far failed and experts said the Texas suit is also unlikely to succeed.

Democrats and other critics have accused Mr Trump of aiming to reduce public confidence in the integrity of US elections and undermine American democracy by trying to subvert the will of the voters.

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Texas accused election officials in the four states of failing to protect mail-in voting from fraud, thus diminishing “the weight of votes cast in states that lawfully abide by the election structure set forth in the constitution”.

State officials have said they have found no evidence of any such fraud that would change the results. There was a surge in voting by mail due to the pandemic, as many Americans stayed away from polling places to avoid the spread of Covid-19.

Texas is asking the supreme court to block the electoral college votes in the four states – a total of 62 votes – from being counted. Mr Biden has amassed 306 electoral votes – exceeding the necessary 270 – compared to 232 for Mr Trump in the state-by-state electoral college that determines the election’s outcome, while winning the national popular vote by more than 7 million votes.

Texas is also asking the supreme court to delay the December 14th date for electoral college votes to be cast. That date was set by law in 1887.

The supreme court is not obligated to hear the case and has said in previous decisions that its “original jurisdiction”, which allows it to directly hear litigation between states, should be invoked sparingly.

No legitimate basis

Paul Smith, a professor and election law expert at Georgetown University’s law school, said Texas did not have a legitimate basis for the suit.

"There is no possible way that the state of Texas has standing to complain about how other states counted the votes and how they are about to cast their electoral votes," said Prof Smith.

Mr Paxton has been an ally of Mr Trump on a range of issues and a case he led seeking to invalidate the Affordable Care Act healthcare law was joined by Mr Trump’s administration when it reached the US supreme court this year.

Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel, a Democrat, called the lawsuit "a publicity stunt, not a serious legal pleading".

“The erosion of confidence in our democratic system isn’t attributable to the good people of Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia or Pennsylvania but rather to partisan officials, like Mr Paxton, who place loyalty to a person over loyalty to their country,” added Ms Nessel.

Mr Trump’s campaign and his supporters have pursued unsuccessful lawsuits in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and other states, making unfounded claims of widespread election fraud. – Reuters