HOUSTON – It’s vital that the U.S. Supreme Court requires national elections be held to constitutional standards. But what's more important is that the high court ensures that elections going forward are contests the people can trust, says Attorney General Ken Paxton.
On Monday, Paxton made headlines just about everywhere when he filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court against four battleground states seeking to stop the Electoral College from finalizing Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential race.
The suit asserts the four states, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, exploited the COVID-19 pandemic to justify ignoring federal and state election laws to unlawfully enact last-minute changes that skewed the results of the 2020 General Election.
Since then, six states have formally joined Texas’s suit and 17 more have filed amicus curiae briefs in support.
“Their supports continues to add weight,” Paxton told The Record. “Things are starting to snowball more and more. There’s nowhere else to take this case. It’s important the Supreme Court hears this issue at least once.”
The filing has drawn harsh criticism, with many pundits accusing the attorney general of attempting to rally his base or even trying curry favor with President Trump.
“That’s ridiculous,” Paxton said. “I’ve been struggling with this issue in my state for more than a year now. We fought to keep the genie in the bottle. We have a legitimate reason to bring this action. They don’t want this lawsuit so they make up illegitimate reasons.”
Earlier this year, Paxton turned to the state’s appellate courts to keep Harris County from sending millions of mail-in ballot applications to registered voters.
“When you look at our narrative you can see we’ve been fighting mail-in ballot fraud all along,” Paxton said. “This issue is bigger than this election. It’s vital Democracy stays intact and that we hold elections that the people can trust.”