Texas Electoral College Casts Presidential Votes For Trump-Pence

AUSTIN, TX — Members of the Electoral College from Texas cast their votes for U.S. president on Monday — a normally behind-the-scenes, ceremonial cog of democracy spotlighted this year amid continued claims of election fraud from incumbent Donald Trump that are not supported by evidence.

As had been expected in red Texas, all the state's 38 electoral votes — the number directly proportional to the number of seats the state holds in Congress — went to the Trump-Pence ticket in what ultimately was an anti-climactic affair. Trump won the state with 52.06 percent of the vote, automatically garnering the state's electoral votes for the outgoing president who lost the national election to his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

In terms of the popular vote, Trump lost by some 7 million ballots — including those from a number of key states pivotal to providing a pathway to the presidency. That electoral calculus handed the U.S. presidency to Biden.

Watch Live: Texas Electoral College Vote

Watch Archived C-SPAN Tape: Texas Electoral College Vote

But in a year when the implausible became reality, all aspects of an otherwise straightforward election have been called into question by Trump and his surrogates. Not accepting defeat, Trump has complained of massive election fraud without evidence to support his claims amid a torrent of unfounded allegations failing to withstand scrutiny.

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A Texas-led lawsuit that other Republican-led states signed onto to overturn millions of votes in a handful of key states — Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — was dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday. Jurists on the high court opined that the Lone Star State had no standing in determining how other states voted, refusing to hear the case while deeming all aspects of the litigation as moot.

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But that key development hasn't stopped Trump and his surrogates from continuing to make their debunked claims of fraud. It also hasn't stopped Trump loyalists from suggesting the formal casting of Electoral College votes on Monday might yield a win for the incumbent — widely seen as an extremely unlikely scenario even before the first ballot was cast.

Texas Electoral College members cast their votes for the Trump-Pence ticket at the state Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020. Photo courtesy of the Office of the Secretary of State.

On the show "Fox and Friends," Trump aide Stephen Miller predicted a second term in office for the incumbent by invoking a supposed "alternate slate of electors" that will cast their votes for Trump. The Electoral College vote at the conclusion of the Nov. 3 election yielded 306 ballots for Biden — well beyond the 270 needed to clinch a presidential win — versus 232 for Trump.

"We have more than enough time to right the wrong of this fraudulent election result and certify Donald Trump as the winner of the election," Miller told Fox and Friends, as reported by the Washington Examiner and others. "As we speak today, an alternate slate of electors in the contested states is going to vote, and we're going to send those results up to Congress."

Miller went further, challenging the Monday election deadline. Instead, Miller said the Trump campaign has until Jan. 20 to conclude lingering litigation contesting the Biden win.

The 538 members of the Electoral College members are compelled by state law to cast their votes for president on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December following the election. Texas members of the Electoral College cast their ballots at 2 p.m. central time.

Texas Electoral College members cast their votes for the Trump-Pence ticket at the state Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020. Photo courtesy of the Office of the Secretary of State.

A handful of states had already cast their Electoral College votes by late morning, including neighboring Oklahoma where the seven electors there endorsed Trump and his vice president, Mike Pence, via their ballots.

Notwithstanding a timbre of completeness to an otherwise pro forma routine, Texas electors made a last-ditch effort at dissent. In the miscellaneous portion of the meeting after votes were cast, elector Mark Ramsey of the 10th congressional district — located in the eastern portion of the state, and includes all of Austin, Colorado, Fayette, Waller and Washington counties along with portions of Bastrop, Harris, Lee, and Travis counties — read a resolution condemning the U.S. Supreme Court's dismissal of the Texas-led lawsuit that sought to overturn the vote in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin filed by State Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Reading the resolution (see point 1:24:30 of the archived recording), Ramsey categorized the election as a "clearly unconstitutional process" while calling for lawmakers in the four battleground states in question to set aside the Nov. 3 election results before appointing a new set of electors. The fact that electoral votes already had been cast in the targeted states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin did little to squash Ramsey's enthusiasm at the lectern as he proposed the resolution in the Capitol chamber.

Titled "Defending the Integrity of Our Constitution, Our Elections and These United States," the resolution labeled the Electoral College members who cast their votes for Biden and his vice presidential running mate, Kamala Harris, in those four states on Election Day as "unconstitutionally appointed electors," as Ramsey said in the Capitol chamber.

"Whereas, the members of the presidential Electoral College from Texas condemn the moral cowardice of the United States Supreme Court in failing to accept the original jurisdiction of a suit from one state against another," Ramsey, an oil and gas executive who joined the Electoral College in July as indicated on his LinkedIn account, began in reading the resolution.

Ramsey invoked the specter of a slippery slope created by the Supreme Court action by alluding to other nations' fates: "When other countries have faced massive election fraud, the end result, more often than not, is a collapse of their rights, a collapse of their governments, a collapse of their economies and an inevitable slide toward tyranny," Ramsey said.

Much discussion ensued over the use of the words "moral cowardice" in describing the high court's dismissal, with Jim Pickle of the third congressional district leading efforts to delete the words he categorized as emotional and thus not befitting the legal document. The resolution ultimately passed by a 34-4 vote —albeit in slightly altered form with "moral cowardice" replaced by "lack of action" in the wording.

Nevertheless, the resolution proved ineffective in affecting the outcome that ushered in "president-elect" honorific for Biden. All 50 states' electors soon would cast their ballots by late Monday afternoon — with California and its 55 votes putting Biden over the top in the Electoral College vote count. The outcome effectively put a stamp of finality amid continual cacophony of claims of voter fraud for which evidence never materialized, with a final Electoral College vote nationally of 306 for Biden and 232 for Trump. The final tally solidified the Democrat's win yet again in a year marked by unprecedented challenges to democratic norms.

Once the semantics debate ended at the state Capitol, Texas Secretary of State Ruth R. Hughs convened the nearly two-hour meeting — adding the imprimatur of her office in making official the Texas electors' ballot casting. "For 175 years, electors from our state have cast their votes on behalf of the electorate," Hughs said, striking a conciliatory tone. "I am honored to call today’s meeting of Texas’ Electors to order as we continue in this tradition and fulfill the duties with which the people of the Lone Star State have entrusted us."