Florida AG joins fight over ballots
Moody, a Trump ally, enters legal push to have Supreme Court hear dispute
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, an ally of President Donald Trump, is joining a high-stakes legal fight that seeks to invalidate mail ballots that arrived after Election Day in Pennsylvania.
Moody and nine other Republican state attorneys general filed a “friend-of thebrief that urges the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the dispute.
Moody’s legal action is the latest example of how Florida GOP leaders have embraced Trump’s fight to keep the White House. Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis floated an idea to bypass the popular vote in key battle ground states with GOP Legislatures, while Moody’s predecessor Pa m B on di has questioned whether “fake ballots” had been cast in Pennsylvania.
Moody’s brief argues that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overstepped its authority when it extended the commonwealth’ s deadline to return mail ballots by three days, allowing ballots postmarked on Election Day and delivered through Friday to be counted.
Even if the Republicans succeed in the legal quest, it doesn’t appear enough mail ballot swould be discarded to change the outcome and deliver the commonwealth’s 20 electoral votes to Trump.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden led Trump by more than 45,000 votes in Pennsylvania, which helped deliver Biden the 270 electoral votes he needs to win the presidency. Associated Press and major news networks have projected Biden as the winner, but Trump has not conceded and has vowed to continue the fight in the courts.
As of Tuesday, Biden is projected to win 290 electoral votes, and Trump has secured 214, according to Associated Press.
Pennsylvania election officials have not yet provided a statewide tally of late-arriving ballots. Still, based on estimates from a
number of counties, the total may not exceed 10,000, Associated Press reported.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court extended the deadline on the basis that voters would be disenfranchised because of postal and ballot-processing delays caused by the pandemic. But the attorneys general say the Republican-controlled Legislature — not the courts— are the ones with the authority to set the deadline.
“Florida supports the principle that a state’s legislature, not courts on the eve of an election, should determine a state’s election laws,” said Kylie Mason, a spokeswoman for Moody. “It is in Florida’s interest to ensure clarity and finality of future elections.”
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 4-4 split decision declined to undo the deadline extension. That ruling occurred before Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the high court.
The legal brief signed by the attorneys general embraces Trump’s unsupported claims that mail voting is subject to widespread fraud. It cites isolated cases of voting fraud from past elections that represent only a tiny number of votes when compared with the total number of ballots cast by mail.
“Over whelming public evidence demonstrates that voting by mail presents unique opportunities for fraud and abuse, opportunities which unscrupulous actors have often exploited,” the brief reads.
Attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina, South Dakota and Texas also signed onto the brief.
Florida’s top Republican leaders, including DeSantis and U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, have not acknowledged that Biden wonthe election. Instead, they say Trump should be given time to pursue legal options.
On Laura Ingraham’s show on Fox News, DeSantis suggested Thursday that GOP state legislators in Michigan and Pennsylvania could override the popularvote and install two slates of presidential electors loyal to Trump if election officials are “not following the law.”
Bondi, Florida’s former attorney general, also has emerged as a key figure in Trump’s legal fight, raising questions on Fox News about the legitimacy of the election and speaking on his behalf at news conferences.
During a Fox News interview, Bondi referred to late-arriving ballots in Pennsylvania as “fake ballots.”
More than 4.8 million Floridians voted by mail in this year’s presidential election. TrumpwonFlorida’s29electoralvotesbymorethan 370,000 votes.
Moody has not called for a review of mail voting in Florida, and her office did not respond to a question asking if she plans to launch one.