Gov. Mike Dunleavy said Wednesday Alaska will not be joining the state of Texas and 16 other Republican attorneys general in a lawsuit alleging unlawful election proceedings in several states where President Donald Trump lost in his reelection bid. In a post on Facebook Dunleavy said his office did not have enough time to review the facts of the case, but would be watching the results closely.
“Electoral integrity remains a cornerstone of our democracy, and every American should know that their vote matters,” Dunleavy said in his post.
My administration became aware of the invitation to join the election lawsuit filed by Texas against Pennsylvania on the…
Posted by Governor Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday, December 9, 2020
The Supreme Court is set to hear the case, which demands the 62 total Electoral College votes in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin be invalidated, but a date has not been set according to The Associated Press. Wednesday President Trump requested he be allowed to join as a plaintiff one day after the U.S. Supreme Court refused without comment to call into question the certification process in Pennsylvania, The AP reported.
[Court waives signature requirement for absentee ballots]
The states already joined in the lawsuit are: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia, according to The AP.
“Depending on the outcome, Alaska will respond accordingly,” Dunleavy said in his post.
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The suit alleges the states in question did not conduct their elections in a lawful manner such as waiving signature requirements for mail-in ballots.
“In the election just held, election officials in key swing states, for apparently partisan advantage, failed to conduct their state elections in compliance with state election law,” the suit alleges. “When election officials conduct elections in a manner that contravenes of the Constitution of the United States, grave harm is done not just to the candidates on the ballot but to the citizenry’s faith in the election process itself.”
Republicans in Pennsylvania attempted to have 2.5 million mail-in ballots thrown out, AP reported, making similar allegations that provisions for expanded mail-in voting during the COVID-19 pandemic violated that state’s constitution.
A statement from Governor Mike Dunleavy: pic.twitter.com/bWoI6ZA0yw
— Alaska GOP (@akgop) November 8, 2020
The suit out of Texas, from Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, demands that the 62 total Electoral College votes in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin be invalidated, according to AP. That’s enough, if set aside, to swing the election to Trump. Paxton’s suit repeats many false, disproven and unsupported allegations about mail-in ballots and voting in the four battlegrounds, The AP reported.
“We will be INTERVENING in the Texas (plus many other states) case,” Trump said hours before the high court filing, AP reported. “This is the big one. Our Country needs a victory!”
The state of Alaska opposed a lawsuit to waive the witness signature requirement for mail-in ballots in October. That suit was brought by the Arctic Village Council; League of Women Voters of Alaska; and two individuals, The AP reported at the time. Their attorneys argued the witness requirement is unconstitutional during the pandemic and a bar to voting for those who don’t live with someone who is at least 18 and able to serve as a witness. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled in their favor in October.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr said earlier this month there was no evidence of voter fraud that could overturn the results of the election, according to The AP.
Contact reporter Peter Segall at psegall@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @SegallJnuEmpire.
