A new suit from the pro-Trump Amistad Project has filed suit in Washington to require five governors open their legislatures to vote on presidential electors, another long-shot play to potentially overturn Joe Biden’s victory.
The suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in the District, demands that legislatures in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin be allowed to certify electors prior to congressional certification in January.
Governors in those states urged legislatures to shut down due in part to COVID-19 concerns, and legislative leaders agreed.
Legislatures in states such as Pennsylvania closed before this month’s planned vote to certify electors, dashing the Trump Team’s hope of having lawmakers in GOP-controlled bodies pick those voting in the Electoral College, which eventually chose Biden.
Amistad said that state legislatures have the constitutional duty to approve the electors and should reopen to do so instead of letting the presidential election results stand.
“Kings and queens dissolve parliaments and legislative bodies, not governors. At least that was the case until this year. Governors in these contested states have declared themselves to be the law due to COVID and are now actively preventing the state legislatures from exercising their constitutional authority to review the election process,” said Phill Kline, director of the Amistad Project.
The suit, which describes problems with elections in those states, would block approving electoral votes from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin until their legislatures meet in a joint session to vote to certify their electors.
“Governors do not have a right to certify election results through fiat,” said Kline, who had previously argued against a federal law that essentially set Dec. 14 as the date electors had to be chosen.
