Texas elector members on Monday after casting all of the states’ 38 Electoral College votes for President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, passed a resolution calling on state legislatures from four battleground states that were carried by President-elect Joe Biden in appointing a new set of electors.
Dubbed “Defending the Integrity of Our Constitution, Our Elections and These United States,” the resolution urged Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Pennsylvania legislatures to set aside the election results and appoint their own electors in the face of “a clearly unconstitutional process.”
However, all four of those states named had already cast their Electoral College votes for Biden by that time Texas electors convened to vote and pass the resolution.
The resolution was formally introduced by Mark Ramsey, an oil engineer and a former member of the State Republican Executive Committee also condemned the Supreme Court for its “lack of action” in dismissing a Texas lawsuit challenging the presidential election results that was filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last week.
“When other countries have faced massive election fraud, the end result has been a collapse of rights, a collapse of the economy and an inevitable slide to tyranny,” Ramsey said of the resolution, noting that his resolution was meant to show how the country “can again be a shining light and not take a destructive pathway.”
There was a brief debate among electors regarding language containing in the resolution. The resolution passed 34-4, after electors decided to strip away the language condemning “the moral cowardice” of the Supreme Court when another elector, Jim Pikl, an appellate lawyer argued during the brief debate that adding such language would make Texas electors come across as being “childish, impertinent and angry.”
The altered form of “moral cowardice” was replaced with the wording of “lack of action.”
On Friday, the Supreme Court rejected Paxton’s suit to challenge the election results of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in arguing those states used the coronavirus pandemic as a pretext to change its election rules that expanded mail in-ballots in violation of the Constitution. The suit asked the high court to block the four states from certifying Biden’s victory and to intervene to direct the state legislatures to appoint a new set of electors.
“Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a justification, government officials in the defendant states of Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (collectively, ‘Defendant State’), usurped their legislatures’ authority and unconstitutionally revised their state’s election statutes,” Paxton’s lawsuit stated. “They accomplished these statutory revisions through executive fiat or friendly lawsuits, thereby weakening ballot integrity.”
More than a dozen Texans in Congress signed on with the 126 Republicans to the amicus brief that endorsed Paxton’s lawsuit. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) agreed at Trump’s request to argue the case before the high court if it were heard.
Cruz during a Monday night campaign telephone town hall said that “it is very, very uphill right now” regarding any path in the next three weeks in overturning the presidential election.
“Clearly if something significant doesn’t change, then Biden and Kamala Harris are on a path to being the next president and vice president,” Cruz said. “I hope something significant changes.”
Texas Republican Party Chair Allen West suggested after Friday’s Supreme Court decision in a statement that states who are law-abiding “should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution.”
Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa blasted the Texas Republican electors, Paxton and West for trying “to subvert the will of the people and change the election results to keep Trump in power.”
“Texas Republicans do not care about our democracy or our Texas values,” Hinojosa said in a statement. “They are sore losers with dangerous agendas — and they will stop at nothing to ensure that their overlord Donald Trump is pleased. Today’s victory for Joe Biden is yet again a step in the right direction, but it should never have gotten to this point.”
“They failed miserably, but the effects of their brazen disregard for democracy will be felt for a long time,” Hinojosa added.
The resolution did little to disrupt the electoral college voting that formally solidified Biden the victor with 306 votes without any drama unfolding. All 50 states’ electors cast their ballots by late Monday afternoon — with California 55 electoral votes putting Biden over the top in the Electoral College vote count.
Pennsylvania Democratic Lieutenant Gov. John Fetterman responded sarcastically to the Texas resolution request, posting on Twitter, “We’ll get right on that.”
We’ll get right on that
— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) December 14, 2020
Trump decisively defeated Biden in the Lone Star State on Nov 3rd, winning 52.1% of the vote and carried Texas by 631,000 votes over Biden who garnished 46.5% of the votes.
The final step before Inauguration Day will occur on Jan. 6, when the states officially send their Electoral College votes to the nation’s Capitol, where a joint session of the new Congress is set to confirm or challenge the results for final certification.
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