[ad_1]
The lawsuit is aimed at helping Republican President Donald Trump reverse the outcome of the Nov.3 election, which was decisively won by his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.
The extraordinary complaint, probably with very little chance of success, was announced by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who will go directly to the United States Supreme Court, as allowed in interstate disputes.
Texas, a state ruled by Republicans, accuses the election officials of the four states against which they complained of failing to protect the vote-by-mail from fraud, reducing “the weight of votes cast in states that respect the electoral structure established in the Constitution”. .
Voting in the November 3 US election reached an all-time high amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with many avoiding polling stations to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Texas asks the Supreme Court to block the vote counting in the Electoral College of the 4 states, which have a total of 62 voters.
Joe Biden won 306 votes in the Electoral College, exceeding the 270 threshold needed to secure his presidency, while incumbent President Donald Trump won 232. Biden also won the popular vote with more than 7 million votes. .
Paul Smith, a professor at Georgetown University School of Law, says applicants do not have a legitimate basis for filing a complaint.
“There is no possible way for the state of Texas to have a basis to complain about how other states have counted the votes and how they are going to cast their electoral votes (not those of the Electoral College),” he said.
Trump’s campaign team and other Republican officials have filed unsuccessful lawsuits in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and other states, accusing them of widespread voter fraud.
Justices appointed by both the Democratic and Republican administrations ruled against the applicants, often in extremely critical language.
Trump lost all 4 states after winning them in 2016.
The Supreme Court is not required to hear the complaint, and on Wednesday refused to accept an appeal from his team to block the certification of the results of the presidential elections in a key Pennsylvania state.
