Amid warnings that Tuesday marked the first “safe harbor deadline” for resolving legal challenges to the election, the Trump campaign legal team issued a statement arguing election contests historically have lasted well beyond the Dec. 8 and Dec. 14 statutory dates.
Dec. 8 is the deadline for states to certify election results before the Dec. 14 Electoral College vote.
But attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis cited the late Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s recognition in Bush v. Gore that the date of “ultimate significance” is Jan. 6.
That’s when Congress counts and certifies the votes of the Electoral College. The only fixed day in the U.S. Constitution, the legal team points out, is the inauguration of the president on Jan. 20 at noon.
“Despite the media trying desperately to proclaim that the fight is over, we will continue to champion election integrity until every legal vote is counted fairly and accurately,” they said.
The Trump team has filed lawsuits in six swing states alleging there are enough fraudulent votes to overturn the official outcome. Attorneys Sidney Powell and Lin Wood, who are not affiliated with the Trump campaign, also have filed lawsuits in swing states.
On Tuesday, lawyers for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania filed a reply to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in opposition to a lawsuit filed by two congressmen challenging the legality of the state’s universal mail-in balloting.
On Monday night, the state of Texas has asked the Supreme Court to invalidate the election results in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia, alleging state officials violated the Constitution by changeing how ballots were cast and counted, without approval from their legislatures.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked for a temporary restraining order preventing the states “from taking action to certify presidential electors or to have such electors take any official action including without limitation participating in the electoral college.”
Powell on Monday filed an emergency appeal to the 11th Circuit after a federal judge dismissed her Georgia election lawsuit. Earlier Monday, Judge Timothy Batten ruled the plaintiffs had no standing to sue, should have filed in state court and were too late.
Last Thursday, Trump campaign lawyer Jordan Sekulow said the most likely path for the president would be for the U.S. Supreme Court to combine cases from several states that would together determine the outcome of the election. The matter could then go to the House, where the Constitution gives each state delegation one vote. Republicans control 26 state delegations while Democrats have 23.
The election also could go to the House via state legislatures, and Republicans in a number of the battleground states are discussing asserting their constitutional authority to dispute the selection of electors to the Electoral College.
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