A number of the legislators who urged Wyoming to join a Texas lawsuit contesting the validity of votes cast in the presidential election have taken to social media to defend their decisions.
At least four legislators have made some sort of statement either explaining or defending their request for the state to support the lawsuit, which challenges whether or not former Vice President Joe Biden was the real winner of the presidential election.
More than 30 Wyoming representatives and senators asked Gov. Mark Gordon to have the state join a lawsuit filed against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that challenges the validity of millions of votes cast in those states.
The lawsuit alleges the four states made unconstitutional changes to their laws before the election that tainted the outcome.
Sen. Affie Ellis of Cheyenne said her call for Wyoming to join the challenge was based on concern that election laws were not followed in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Michigan.
“State legislators are constitutionally tasked with writing election laws to ensure integrity and public confidence,” she said. “Texas has filed a lawsuit to that effect and 17 other states have filed an amicus brief sharing Texas’ concerns. Our country depends on the integrity of fair elections. If the challenged states conducted their elections properly, they should have nothing to worry about.”
Rep. Landon Brown said his support for the Texas lawsuit does not reflect an unwillingness to accept an outcome of the presidential election. Rather, that the current president has the right to use the legal system to “see if it works.”
“This year we hear of potential issues with states violating their own constitution with isolated incidents,” he said. “Let me be clear, I do not believe that the amount of incidents would ultimately change the outcome of our elections, but the amicus brief states that we wish to have this hashed out and we have a vested interest in the outcome.”
Brown acknowledged Biden won the election more than once in his post, but still felt the lawsuit had validity and that Wyoming should still support it.
Rep. Scott Clem acknowledged he signed the letter in a post on Thursday, and also thanked U.S. Senator-elect Cynthia Lummis for her support of the legislators.
“Election integrity must be upheld,” he said.
Representative-elect Chip Neiman posted a statement to his Facebook page, urging Gordon to join the lawsuit.
“We must support Texas in their suit,” he said. “We should have a long time ago.”
Wyoming won’t join the lawsuit, as Gordon said as much in a statement on Thursday evening.
