Texas Attorney General Seeks to Sue Wisconsin, Three Other States

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton would like to sue the states of Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania over their election practices. Each of the states was won by Joe Biden in the November 3rd presidential election.

“The four states exploited the COVID-19 pandemic to justify ignoring federal and state election laws and unlawfully enacting last-minute changes, thus skewing the results of the 2020 General Election,” wrote Paxton in a news release. He argues that each state ignored rules enacted by its Legislature.

Paxton filed a motion with the Supreme Court of the United States asking for permission to file the suit. He would like the court to delay the December 14th Electoral College vote.

He alleges an irregularity because Donald Trump was winning as of 3 a.m. and Biden had “less than a one in quadrillion to the fourth power” chance of winning. Paxton’s motion ignores that Wisconsin and other states announced the number of absentee ballots that were outstanding in their largest cities and that they would not be reported until the morning of November 4th at the earliest.

In Wisconsin in particular he repeats the claims of the Trump campaign, attacking the absentee ballot process in the state’s two largest counties while ignoring counties Trump won. The Wisconsin Elections Commission‘s allowance of drop boxes and the acceptance of a non-profit election safety grant by the mayors of Green Bay, Kenosha, Madison, Milwaukee and Wisconsin are also singled out. Paxton says Dane County Clerk Scott McDonnell‘s and Milwaukee County Clerk George L. Christenson‘s (misspelled as Christensen) March guidance that voters could declare themselves “indefinitely confined” during the state’s Safer at Home order violated the law. A court reversed that guidance in April and multiple elections have since been held.

Paxton also advances a conspiracy theory from a United States Postal Service subcontractor Ethan J. Pease that even if true, wouldn’t have impacted election results. Based not on direct observation, but second-hand knowledge, Pease says that USPS employees were backdating ballots received after November 3rd in Madison. Wisconsin law requires absentee ballots to be received by a clerk by the close of polls (8:00 p.m.) on election day. Madison and its surrounding communities reported their results on November 3rd or shortly after midnight on November 4th. Each counted the ballots in a public location and no allegations of a post-8:00 p.m. mail delivery to any location have been made.

“By ignoring both state and federal law, these states have not only tainted the integrity of their own citizens’ vote, but of Texas and every other state that held lawful elections,” said Paxton in announcing his motion. “Their failure to abide by the rule of law casts a dark shadow of doubt over the outcome of the entire election. We now ask that the Supreme Court step in to correct this egregious error.”

He proposes a remedy of allowing the Republican-controlled legislatures in each state to be able to choose the state’s electoral college delegates, a similar provision that other lawsuits and petitions have sought in an attempt to overturn the election.

In Wisconsin, Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke (R-Kaukana) made his view clear on the idea of overturning the election. Responding to a Wisconsin State Journal article on November 29th, Steineke tweeted a photo of Dana Carvey playing George H.W. Bush on Saturday Night Live with the caption “Not Gonna Do It.”

Paxton, a Tea Party Republican first elected in 2015, is under indictment for securities fraud prior to taking office in 2015. He was in the Texas State Legislature at the time and has pled not guilty. In October 2020 he was accused of “bribery, abuse of office and other crimes” by seven of his senior aides.

A full copy of the motion can be found on Urban Milwaukee.

Like many of the pro-Trump legal actions, a lot of typos, misspellings and other irregularities can be found. Hillary Clinton is misspelled as Hilary. The Milwaukee Election Commission is misspelled as the Milwaukee Elections Commission and Biden’s mathematical odds of winning change between one quadrillion to the fourth and fifth power depending on the paragraph.

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul responded to the motion, referencing a historic playoff game between the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys.

“I feel sorry for Texans that their tax dollars are being wasted on such a genuinely embarrassing lawsuit. Texas is as likely to change the outcome of the Ice Bowl as it is to overturn the will of Wisconsin voters in the 2020 presidential election,” tweeted Kaul.

Lawsuits

Having trouble keeping them all straight? Cases are listed in the order filed.

• Wisconsin Voters Alliance petition – rejected by the Wisconsin Supreme Court
• Mueller dropbox petition – rejected by Wisconsin Supreme Court
• Trump campaign Wisconsin Supreme Court petition – rejected by Wisconsin Supreme Court
• Sidney Powell “massive election fraud” federal petition – pending
• Trump campaign federal suit – pending
• Trump Milwaukee County suit – newly filed
• Trump Dane County suit – merged into Milwaukee suit
• Paxton motion – newly filed