Current And Former Kansas Political Players Throw Support Behind Texas Election Lawsuit

By Noah Taborda, the Kansas Reflector

December 9, 2020

TOPEKA — Kansas joined 16 states Wednesday in calling for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a lawsuit brought by Texas that calls for a review of voting procedures in the 2020 general election in four swing states.

The suit, filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, demands that Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin’s 62 total Electoral College votes not be counted when electors meet to vote Monday. The action would, in effect, invalidate President-elect Joe Biden’s projected Electoral College victory.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt called on the nation’s highest court to review whether these states departed from statutory requirements and violated the U.S. Constitution.

“These are important and potentially recurring constitutional questions that need an answer to guide states,” Schmidt said. “Kansas ran its elections honestly and by the rules that are supposed to apply evenly to all of us. Texas asserts it can prove four states violated the U.S. Constitution in an election that affects all Americans, so Texas should be heard.”

Later Wednesday, Trump filed a motion to intervene in the case in his capacity as a presidential candidate. He joins the 17 states, all of which Trump won last month, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take on the case.

Schmidt’s decision to include Kansas in this effort was announced just hours after former Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer called on him to join the lawsuit on behalf of the 770,000 Kansas voters who cast a ballot in favor of Trump.

“A threat to election security anywhere is a threat to election security everywhere,” Colyer said via Twitter. “To protect our voice, Kansas needs to be in this fight.”

Legal experts have dismissed Paxton’s filing, which includes several disproven and unsupported claims about by-mail and in-person voting, as the latest in a series of attempts to discredit Election Day results.

Out of about 50 lawsuits filed across the country contesting the Nov.3 election results, Trump and supporters have lost more than 35, with the others still pending, according to the Associated Press.

The Kansas Reflector seeks to increase people's awareness of how decisions made by elected representatives and other public servants affect our day-to-day lives. We hope to empower and inspire greater participation in democracy throughout Kansas.