Atlanta

Texas AG suing GA, 3 other states to overturn Nov. election results to correct ‘egregious error’

ATLANTA — The Texas attorney general is suing the state of Georgia along with three other states, saying they exploited the COVID-19 pandemic to justify putting last-minute changes in place in the November election.

Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the suit in the United States Supreme Court against the states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

“The battleground states flooded their people with unlawful ballot applications and ballots while ignoring statutory requirements as to how they were received, evaluated and counted,” Paxton’s office said in a news release Tuesday.

[SPECIAL SECTION: Election 2020]

The move is the latest attempt to overturn Georgia’s results in the November election.

President-elect Joe Biden won the state and national election, with more than 7 million more total votes than President Donald Trump.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger recertified the state’s election results on Monday following a by-hand recount of the ballots through a state mandated audit and another machine recount requested by the Trump campaign.

“The states violated statutes enacted by their duly elected legislatures, thereby violating the Constitution. 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,” Paxton said. “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.”

GEORGIA VOTER GUIDE:

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office said the filing is unsound.

“With all due respect, the Texas attorney general is constitutionally, legally and factually wrong about Georgia,” said Katie Byrd, Carr’s spokeswoman.

Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the allegations in the lawsuit “are false and irresponsible.”

“Texas alleges that there are 80,000 forged signatures on absentee ballots in Georgia, but they don’t bring forward a single person who this happened to. That’s because it didn’t happen,” Fuchs said.

Regardless of the lawsuit, the Electors College is still on track to meet on Dec. 14 to officially elect the next president.