Texas AG files suits in 4 battleground states claiming unconstitutional changes to election laws

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed lawsuits in four battleground states Tuesday alleging the states “exploited the COVID-19 pandemic to justify ignoring federal and state election laws.”

Paxton, a Republican, claims the states — Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — “flooded their people with unlawful ballot applications and ballots while ignoring statutory requirements as to how they were received, evaluated and counted.”

Paxton accuses the states of “violating statutes enacted by their duly-elected legislatures, thereby violating the Constitution.” Paxton is asking the Supreme Court to “step in to correct this egregious error.”

In those four states, Democrat Joe Biden won the presidential election following certifications and recounts affirming original results.

In Georgia, officials have counted its presidential ballots three times, reaffirming Biden’s victory in the state.

President Donald Trump also called Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in an attempt to make Kemp appoint electors that would ignore the results and vote for him, but Kemp declined.

Wisconsin certified its results a week ago in favor of Biden, and a judge call a Trump campaign lawsuit to remand the election results to the Republican-controlled Legislature “bizarre.”

Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court threw out a lower court’s decision to stop certifying results. Biden won the state by more than 80,000 votes. Trump won the state in 2016.

In Michigan, Biden’s victory was certified Nov. 23. Trump’s campaign has already had lawsuits thrown out regarding baseless claims of voter fraud in the state.