Max McNabb
Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General, announced on Tuesday that he’s suing the states of Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin over what he calls unconstitutional changes to election laws. The lawsuit contends that those states used COVID-19 to ‘justify ignoring federal and state election laws and unlawfully enacting last-minute changes, thus skewing the results of the 2020 General Election.’ As Texas sues the defendant states, the controversy over the 2020 election is heating up once again.
According to expert statistical analysis cited in the Texas lawsuit, the probability of former Vice President Joe Biden winning the popular vote in those four defendant states independently, “given President Trump’s early lead in those States as of 3 a.m. on November 4, 2020,” is less than 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000. That’s one in a quadrillion. The odds become even more unlikely, the lawsuit claims, for Biden to have won those states collectively: one in a quadrillion to the fourth power.
The Big One
Photo: @photovs via Twenty20
President Donald Trump has said that he’ll join the Texas Attorney General’s legal effort. “This is a big one,” Trump wrote. The President went on to refer to the lawsuit as “the case that everyone has been waiting for…”
Kellyanne Conway’s husband, George Conway, is an attorney who opined on CNN that the lawsuit is “absurd and an embarrassment.” Mr. Conway’s spouse was the former Senior Counselor of President Trump before resigning after a public feud over her daughter’s series of TikTok videos.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel referred to the lawsuit as a publicity stunt, “not a serious legal pleading.”
Remembering the 2000 Election
Photo: @johncarmean via Twenty20
“A dark cloud hangs over the 2020 Presidential election,” Paxton’s lawsuit said. “…government officials in the defendant states… flooded the Defendant States with millions of ballots to be sent through the mails, or placed in drop boxes, with little or no chain of custody and, at the same time, weakened the strongest security measures protecting the integrity of the vote—signature verification and witness requirements.”
While mainstream media outlets, including Fox News, were quick to call the 2020 election in favor of Former Vice President Joe Biden, many experts are reminding Americans about what happened during the 2000 Presidential Election between George W. Bush and Former Vice President Al Gore. The infamous “hanging chad” situation in Florida led to a supreme court case deciding the results of that election. Only 537 votes separated Democrat Gore and Republican Bush from winning Florida’s 25 electoral votes. On election night in 2000, TV networks originally called the swing state of Florida for Gore, then backpedaled and called it for Bush. The results were simply too close to call, and allegations of voter fraud soon emerged. The election wouldn’t be decided until three weeks after Election Day, the state of Florida finally declared the republican candidate as the winner.
As Texas sues the four defendant states and our political situation becomes more and more divided, what can Americans expect in future elections? Do you support the lawsuit, or do you think it’s frivolous? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
