FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Augusta, ME) –State Senator Stacey Guerin is calling on Maine’s Attorney General to sign onto a lawsuit brought by the State of Texas, seeking a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court as to whether extraordinary changes in elections laws in four states were in compliance with federal law.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, claiming that changes to election procedures in those states in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are unlawful. The suit asks the U.S. Supreme Court to block these states from voting in the Electoral College as a result. In a filing on Tuesday, Paxton argued that the four states made changes to their election policies, “through executive fiat or friendly lawsuits, thereby weakening ballot integrity.”

General Paxton claims that these changes allowed voter fraud to occur and asked the court to suspend the December 14 deadline by which each state must appoint its representatives to the Electoral College.

Attorneys for Texas argued that the deadline, “should not cement a potentially illegitimate election result in the middle of this storm.” If these states did not act in accordance with the U.S. Constitution, American citizens in every state will be affected by the outcome.

If this is so, there is no great threat to the Republic posed by allowing this suit to go forward through the proper legal channels. If the case fails, then the public may be reassured that all of the available legal remedies were exhausted, and the outcome of the election was thus legally resolved.

In either case, the outcome would answer important legal and politically questions worth settling. For this reason, Maine should join with Texas and any other states that sign on to the lawsuit and seek answers to these questions once and for all.

Sen. Stacey Guerin: “The people of the United States have a right to know whether unusual changes in election laws in several states were in violation of federal law. This is a very important legal question with enormous ramifications, and it should be answered by the nation’s highest court.”

Senate Republican Leader Jeff Timberlake: “There are very important legal questions to be resolved here as to whether states acted within the law when adjusting their elections to adapt to the pandemic. I agree with Senator Guerin that there is no harm in getting these questions answered by the Supreme Court so that any confusion or debate can be resolved.”

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