Tuesday, December 15, 2020

From The Texas Tribune: After voting for Donald Trump, Texas electors ask swing states to reject results that assured victory for Joe Biden

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The Electoral College on Monday affirmed former Vice President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, but not before Texas’ 38 electors delivered their votes for Donald Trump and defiantly urged the legislatures of four swing states to overrule the will of their voters and appoint their own electors.

The call from the Texas electors came in the form of a resolution they passed 34-4, but it had no impact on the results. The four states — Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Pennsylvania — had already cast their votes by that time, and soon after, California cast its 55 votes for Biden and pushed him over the 270 number he needed to win the presidency.

Nonetheless, the resolution continued the practice of many Texas Republicans of baselessly questioning Biden’s victory and claiming fraud.

The resolution also “condemn[ed] the lack of action by the U.S. Supreme Court” to overturn the election results. There was a brief debate among electors over whether they should keep language in the resolution denouncing members of the U.S. Supreme Court for “moral cowardice.” On Friday, the high court briskly rejected a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Ken Paxton that sought to overturn the election results and had become a vehicle for Republicans across the country to contest Biden’s victory.